Residents are in the driver's seat of development

21 April 2016

 

The Soweto of today is not the same as the Soweto we inherited from the apartheid government," City of Johannesburg's Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Community Development, Councillor Chris Vondo, said in Meadowlands, in Region D, this week.

 

MMC Vondo was addressing hundreds of Soweto residents who had packed the Meadowlands Hall during an Integrated Development Planning (IDP) meeting on Tuesday night.

"Today Soweto is a suburb," MMC Vondo said as he unpacked the progress the City had made in transforming the township over the past few years. The City is efficiently run," the MCC said. "But we can't sit in our air-conditioned offices and think we can do it alone. That's why we are here so you are part of the vision to make Joburg a world-class African city. We are putting you at the centre of driving this aspiration. We can't do that alone," he said.

He said to prove that Johannesburg was indeed a world-class African city, Executive Mayor Cllr Parks Tau was nominated as the African candidate for the co-presidency of the United Cities and Local Government (UCLG). Johannesburg was, among other things, ranked the second-most inspiring city in the world.

Cllr Vondo admitted, however, that there were serious challenges facing the City, including poverty, unemployment and inequality. He warned that youth unemployment was a "ticking time bomb". All efforts were needed to confront this challenge, he said.

The City has, however, taken a number of critical steps to tackle the scourge. Earlier in the day, at the Sci-Bono Centre in Newtown, 30 previously unemployed university graduates were honoured at a graduation ceremony after successfully completing a 12-week intensive skills development programme offered by global technology company SAP and backed by the City.

All 30 young men and women have since been employed by the City in various positions in the Finance and Human Resources departments. Last year the Mayor announced the dawn of Vulindlel' eJozi, a City initiative aimed at creating work and empowerment opportunities for more than 200 000 young people.
MMC Vondo said contrary to popular belief, there was a significant number of elderly people migrating to the city every year. As a result, programmes must be put in place to take care of the upsurge.

Projections are that the city's population will grow from 4.8 million this year to 5.42 million in the next five years.

"We're saying we must eradicate poverty, not merely reduce it. Our plan is to eradicate poverty by 3% in the next five years," he said.