City will give no room for corruption
12 April 2016
The City of Johannesburg’s achievement of an unqualified audit demonstrates its intolerance of corruption and malfeasance, according to Councillor Sol Cowan, Chairperson of the City’s Municipal Public Accounts Committee.
Speaking during a 2016-2021 Integrated Development Plan (IDP) meeting at Jabula Centre in Sandringham on Monday night, Councillor Cowan said the City was serious about fighting corruption.
The meeting was also addressed by Member of the Mayoral Committee for Public Safety Councillor Cowan Sello Lemao.
“The City takes a dim view of and has serious reservations about corruption. The substantial decrease in fruitless and wasteful expenditure emphasises that stern action has been and will be taken against corrupt practices by officials,” he said.
This was the second in a series of IDP meetings to be held this year. The meetings give residents the platform to share ideas on projects and programmes they believe the City should undertake to improve their quality of life. The meetings will culminate in a stakeholder summit to be held on Saturday April 23 at a venue still to be announced.
The City was given an unqualified audit opinion by the Auditor-General, while six of its entities achieved clean audits in the 2014-2015 financial year. The City achieved a surplus of R3.9-billion and increased its capital spending by 38% – from R7.3-billion in 2013-2014 to R10.1-billion in the current year.
MMC Lemao outlined a number of achievements the City had made. They included the creation of 132 Wi-Fi hotspots in City-owned facilities such as clinics, libraries and theatres, support of 4 600 SMMEs and facilitation of R3.2-billion in business transactions. He said the latest Customer Satisfaction Survey also showed good satisfaction levels. The survey, he said, showed that 83.9% of residents were satisfied with water services; 82.4% said they were happy with sanitation facilities. 85.1% were content with waste removal; and 75.3% were happy with storm water infrastructure.
The MMC said although the needs for development in communities were many, the City had done its best to meet infrastructure challenges with limited resources.
“Notwithstanding the fragile economic climate throughout the 2013-2014 financial year, the City’s focus has been, and remains, to maintain adequate cash reserves to fund service delivery programmes through a stringent cash management approach,” MMC Lemao said.
Residents who spoke at the meeting claimed that the City was not attending to their service-related problems.
Liz Meyer of Lombardy East said her area was being ignored in the City’s development plans.
“No development comes to Lombardy East. We made a proposal to the City for the development of our area 10 years ago. But this has been ignored. We feel that our area is ignored and abused by the City,” she said.
Other complaints concerned potholes, illegal car repair businesses on pavements, the diversion of traffic as a result of the construction of Phase 1C of Rea Vaya Bus Rapid Transit system on Louis Botha Avenue, the increase in drug dealing, burst water pipes and the lack of parks.
MMC Lemao said residents did not have to wait for a year to voice their problems at IDP meetings.
“Councillors are supposed to hold quarterly meetings in their constituencies, where residents must raise these issues and expect their resolution. Residents also need to have the names and telephone numbers of City officials in their region,” he said.