The City of Johannesburg marks two years since a multi-party coalition government was formed at the last local government elections.
Since then, Mayor Herman Mashaba, has served in his capacity to bring what he has coined as Diphetogo (meaning change derived from Setswana) for residents of the city he serves.
Marking the day, Mashaba said: “Under previous administrations, the City was run in an environment where corruption was allowed to fester and neglect of the City’s infrastructure was the order of the day. Indeed, upon taking over government, we found a City with an infrastructure backlog of R170 billion.”
This backlog has resulted in poor maintenance of road infrastructure across the city’s network, which has now seen the JRA diverting funds from projects to conduct urgent maintenance operations on sections of the M2 bridge. This will be done at a cost estimated at R58 million as assessed by engineering teams.
“Working together with our coalition partners, we are gradually delivering the change that the residents of our city voted for. Our residents want to see Diphetogo, in their communities,” added Mashaba.
Highlighting some of the strides the administration has made, he revealed that the multi-party coalition government has :
• Invested the largest share of the capital budget for roads, transport, housing, electricity and water, going up from 54% in 2016/17 to 69% in 2018/19
• Allocated R120 million to site and service schemes (double the previous year’s allocation) to provide serviced sites onto which beneficiaries can be settled with full ownership
• Aimed to accelerate the formalization of informal settlements, by investing R14 million for the purpose of embarking on a consolidated planning program for informal settlements across the City
• Set aside R50 million for the upgrading of inner city emergency housing and rental stock
• Set aside R46 million for the acquisition of buildings in the inner city for the purpose of creating affordable housing for residents
• Set aside R117 million for the electrification of informal settlements
• Launched free Community Substance Abuse Treatment Centres within the city in order to fight the scourge of substance abuse in communities whilst also launching extended operating hours within our 13 of our clinics, and
• Invested in the increased safety of communities, by recruiting 1500 trainee JMPD officers who will join our law enforcement efforts.
It seems Mashaba will stop at nothing to ensure this winning streak that he aims to sustain to serve residence of the City of Johannesburg. Many look forward to see how service delivery will be accelerated with his promise to bring change and continue on a zero-tolerance approach to lawlessness and criminality in the city.
