MOEs’ reintegration savings to fund SMMEs, Mayor tells IDP

21 April 2017

 

Millions of Rands saved through the reintegration of the City of Johannesburg’s municipal-owned entities (MOEs) will be used to fund small businesses, said Executive Mayor of Johannesburg, Cllr Herman Mashaba, last night.

 

This was one of several deliverables announced by Mayor Mashaba during Region C’s Integrated Development Plan (IDP) summit held at a packed Roodepoort City Hall.

The IDP is a five-year strategy for responding to the City’s service delivery needs, including, delivering services to poor communities, addressing the City’s R170 billion infrastructure backlog and tackling corruption.

Earlier this year, the City’s council approved a report proposing that MOEs such as waste management company, Pikitup, electricity utility, City Power, Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA), Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA), Johannesburg Water, Johannesburg Property Company (JPC) and others be reintegrated into the City’s administration.

This was with the view of improving service delivery to residents by ensuring that the City’s elected representatives are ultimately accountable for service delivery. The reintegration process was estimated to take up to 18 months.

Mayor Mashaba told last night’s IDP summit that funding small businesses was critical as this would help create jobs and advance the City’s plan to achieve 5 % economic growth in Johannesburg by 2021. 

“The reintegration of the entities will also help us deal with fragmented service delivery,” he said.

 

Mayor Mashaba also told residents that the billing challenges which have haunted ratepayers for years were being tackled head-on. He also promised to investigate the feasibility of extending operating hours of Metrobus services in the region, assessing the condition of Roodepoort Clinic and pursuing job-creation initiatives.

 

Unfortunately, despite numerous appeals for cooperation, several IDP summits, including last night’s, continue to be marred by acts of attempted disruption.

 

As such, the City has taken steps to ensure the safety of all those present at IDP summits.

 

Despite these disruption, the Mayor said that he continues to look forward to engaging and working with  communities to build a better City of Johannesburg