Inner city makeover is gathering momentum

25 November 2016

 

The City of Johannesburg has joined forces with some of its key stakeholders to make the inner city cleaner, safer and more inhabitable in order to create conditions for economic growth.

 

The move – which seeks to eliminate crime, illegal dumping, illegal parking, illegal trading and overcrowding, among other things – was made at a stakeholder meeting held at St Mary’s Cathedral on Thursday November 24.

 

The St Mary’s Cathedral Precinct is one of the areas hardest hit by crime in the inner city, according to Reverend Xolani Dlwathi. He said the safety of churchgoers had been under threat for a long time. 

 

“We’ve lost many members of our church due to crime in this vicinity. Some of our international visitors have also been robbed out there,” Dlwathi said.

 

Region F Director Irene Mafune agreed that the inner city was one of “the most problematic areas” in Johannesburg. She said all the stakeholders had a collective responsibility to create a clean and safe environment.

 

“We’re reaching out to communities and asking them to start assessing how they conduct themselves and remodel their business structures. This is because there are rules and regulations in the City of Johannesburg that have to be complied with,” Mafune said.

 

Zacharia Ramutula, President of the One Voice for All Hawkers Association, said the problem lay with “those who are not consistent when doing their work”. 

 

“It appears as if we (the informal traders) are the only ones who are being discriminated against because when the Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) officers enforce the by-laws, we’re the only ones affected. The law must apply to everyone,” Ramutula said.

 

JMPD’s Superintendent Lawrence Nonjakazi said it was very difficult for its units to work with “unco-operative citizens”.  

 

“We’d like to see voluntary compliance by informal traders and taxi drivers. That way, there will be law and order in the city,” Nonjakazi said.

 

Other stakeholders that took part in the discussions included the University of Johannesburg, non-profit organisation Time for Change, South African Police Service, property owners and community leaders.

 

Next week, the various stakeholders will nominate members to serve on St Mary’s Cathedral Precinct Committee, expected to be established before the end of 2016.

 

The committee will monitor identified issues to ensure that plans discussed at the meeting are sustained. 

This comes after Executive Mayor Cllr Herman Mashaba called for urban decay and crime in the inner city to be tackled to attract investors.

 

Mayor Mashaba intends to grow the economy by a minimum of 5% by 2021 as articulated in the 10-point plan.