Ekurhuleni takes a leaf out of Joburg’s book

04 March 2016

 

Adelegation from the City of Ekurhuleni on Thursday March 3 visited the City of Johannesburg’s Region F – which includes the inner city – on a fact-finding mission and to share ideas on a range of programmes the two cities use to drive service delivery in communities.

 

In her presentation, Region F Director Irene Mafune detailed how the Inner City Transformation Roadmap, launched in May 2015 by Johannesburg Executive Mayor Councillor Parks Tau, would reverse urban decay and turn the inner city into a well-governed, clean, safe, sustainable and inclusive urban space. The roadmap, which replaces the Inner City Regeneration Programme signed in 2007, has already seen the private sector investing more than R10-billion to rejuvenate the inner city and restore it to its former glory.

Mafune said the City of Joburg had made enormous progress over the past five years, turning around many bad buildings – hijacked by syndicates – and converting them into clean, modern apartments.

“However, we can’t drive the regeneration of the inner city alone. We’ve to include the private sector and communities. We’ve to work with City entities such as the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department, Johannesburg Roads Agency, Johannesburg Development Agency, Joburg Water, City Power and Johannesburg City Parks & Zoo, share ideas and come up with solutions,” she said.

She said the City had adopted a carrot-and-stick approach in dealing with decaying and hijacked buildings by using law enforcement agencies to tackle crime syndicates on the one hand; and providing housing and facilities, and redeveloping bad buildings on the other.

The delegation was also taken on a tour of the inner city, which included places such as the Mary Fitzgerald Square in Newtown; Chancellor House, where former President Nelson Mandela and his friend Oliver Tambo operated their law practice; Gandhi Square; ABSA Precinct; Main Street Mall; and the Greater Noord Precinct.

Mafune also told the delegation about Jozi@Work, a R3-billion initiative aimed at turning township job seekers into job creators; and the R150-million Vulindlel’Jozi programme, which seeks to dismantle barriers to youth employment and empowerment opportunities. Members of the delegation said they were highly impressed by, among other things, the City’s Citizen Relationship Urban Management (CRUM) Unit and said their municipality had already started introducing a similar model.