Mayor’s walkabout reveals inner city decay

24 October 2016

 

Johannesburg Executive Mayor Cllr Herman Mashaba and several members of the City of Johannesburg’s Mayoral Committee on Friday night (21 October) came face-to-face with the ugly side of the Johannesburg inner city and the enormous challenges the City is confronted with in its bid to restore it to its former glory.

 

During a walkabout on a cold and rainy night, the team was exposed to filthy and dilapidated hijacked buildings, flagrant disregard for City by-laws by nightclub patrons, notorious crime hotspots, urban decay, degeneration of infrastructure and general lawlessness in this once-glorious part of Region F.

 

The Mayor’s entourage included Members of the Mayoral Committee such as Cllr Michael Sun (Public Safety), Cllr Mzobanzi Ntuli (Housing), Cllr Mpho Phalatse (Health and Social Development), Cllr Nonhlanhla Sifumba (Community Development) as well as Speaker of Council Cllr Vasco da Gama.

 

Led by Regional Director Irene Mafune, the tour started at the old Florence Nightingale Building in Hillbrow, which used to house the Hillbrow Hospital but has since become a shadow of its former self and degenerated into a haven for criminals.

 

Health and Social Development officials said the building was in the process of being expropriated and taken over by the University of Witwatersrand. The process is expected to be finalised within three months.

 

During the walkabout, Mayor Mashaba engaged residents in the streets, some of whom were drinking publicly in contravention of the City’s by-laws.

 

Region F City officials told Mayor Mashaba that what compounded the issue of hijacked buildings was the fact that their owners could not be traced. In cases where the City tried to intervene to rescue the properties from further degradation, tenants resisted by engaging lawyers, ending up in lengthy and protracted court battles.

 

At the Joe Slovo Bridge in Bertrams, officials of the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) told the mayoral entourage that the area had become a huge crime hotspot. The University of Johannesburg has a campus and student residences nearby. Students are being mugged on a daily basis. This has led to the deployment of a South African Police Service vehicle to the area.

 

A number of vagrants sleep under the bridge. In some areas, street lights are not functioning as a result of theft and vandalism, according to City Power officials who formed part of the tour.

 

“The street lights are tampered with as soon as we replace them. A permanent solution is needed to deal with this,” one of the officials told the Mayor.

 

Mayor Mashaba said he was encouraged and inspired to find sustainable solutions to all the challenges he had been exposed on the night. He said he had listened to the concerns and frustrations expressed by officials.

 

“Thank you for exposing me to these challenges tonight. Colleagues are concerned. It’s not going to be easy [to address these challenges] but with your support it’s possible. One of the items in our 10-point plan is the revival of the inner city.

 

“If we are to achieve minimum economic growth of 5%, we have to revive the inner city. We have to bring unemployment down. Help us. Let’s give the private sector the necessary support to ensure developers get funding and political support. These have been their frustrations in the past,” Mayor Mashaba concluded.

 

The tour began at 7.30pm and ended at 11.30pm.