It is with a warm heart that I greet you, residents of Soweto, a community that has been described as the ‘Heart of Joburg’. You know, and my medical training has taught me that without the heart, a body cannot live. As the Executive Mayor I also know that without Soweto, Joburg cannot live.
Every Region and every community of Johannesburg plays its part in keeping the City and the economy of the country going. The job that this Multi-Party Government has to do, with you the residents, is a mammoth one which we do not take for granted; not even for a moment of the day do we abandon our duties to you.
This government will never profess to be perfect or always agree, but what we can say without hesitation or ambiguity is that we love this City, and we will focus our efforts on ensuring that the service delivery needs of residents are carried out.
Our job is to ensure that at the most basic, yet important, service delivery level your needs are taken care of.
Equally there is a role that communities have to play in ensuring that not only are these needs taken care of and protected, but to hold us, the elected office-bearers and publicly employed officials accountable when we do not do as we are mandated to do by law.
We shall never shy away from engaging with you, our resident. Even when those responsibilities do not lie within our sphere of authority.
This Multi-Party Government stands in service to you.
When you marched to the Metro Centre on Tuesday, 21 June 2022, I made a commitment to personally respond to the volume of memoranda that were delivered to me.
When we were unable to respond within the committed time, I communicated that with you.
At each landmark, lines of communication were open, and we submitted formal written responses.
When I unfortunately fell ill, the decision was made to postpone this day, because the commitment was that I, on behalf of the Multi-Party Government, would personally address the service delivery issues and emergencies detailed in your memoranda. This date, the 10 September, was subsequently set.
Even with a motion of no confidence hanging over me and this Executive, we are here today to provide feedback relating to in the main electricity from Eskom, and the obligations that we as the City have to you.
Regardless of where you live in Johannesburg we have a responsibility to you, even if it means mediating conversations and solutions from Provincial and National Departments and Entities. The makeup and status of Joburg means that its complexities require all role players across all government spheres to work together in service of residents.
In the nine months we have been in office, we have had to make the City stronger. Similar to a patient straight out of hospital we needed to build the City’s strength in order to
ensure that it had the human, financial and political strength to fully deliver on its mandate.
Indeed, the pace of service delivery was slow at the beginning, but we are steadily overcoming the obstacles that have held us back.
We are close to filling all Senior Management roles; on 1 July 2022 we activated a R77,3-billion budget that is hard at work; and the coalition is more united than ever – this, all in service of you.
MMCs,
The residents of Soweto, like all communities, across the City of Joburg have asked, “of this R77,3-billion how much of it is benefitting the individual and collective needs of residents?”
Of this R77,3-billion, approximately R69,4-billion of it is operational expenditure, and of this amount, 23% is going into Region D. That amounts to R15,9-billion for this region alone.
Of the R7,7-billion capital budget, there are 46 projects to the value of close to R540-million during the 2022/23 financial year.
The projects include, but are not limited to:
• The Lufhereng Social Housing Project
• Renewal of water main in Mapetla
• An upgrade of the Protea Glen Clinic
• The Naledi Clinic
• A new Multi-Purpose Centre in Phiri
• The roll out of title deeds; and
• Upgrades to bulk infrastructure – to name but a few.
This last week, alongside MMC for Economic Development, Cllr Nkuli Mbundu, and MMC for Development Planning, Cllr Belinda Echeozonjoku, we met with business leaders who are keen and ready to invest in Soweto by establishing a hub for SMMEs. This is an acknowledgment that first, we want the economy of Soweto to flourish for and by Sowetans.
Second, it reinforces the fact that it is the private sector that creates jobs, not the government. It is our job to ensure that the necessary policies and infrastructure is in place.
We are working with all stakeholders, especially the private sector to not only repair and rebuild Soweto but the whole of Johannesburg.
Residents of Soweto, our government wants to make it easier and more affordable for you to travel. We want to fix your roads. And we are doing so steadily.
MMC for Transport, Cllr Funzi Ngobeni and the Johannesburg Roads Agency have been busy repairing and upgrading roads in Soweto. Every time I drive through Soweto, I see men and women from the Entity at work.
One of the projects which excites me is the Zola Public Transport Facility.
Safety Interventions
We as a City and a Multiparty government care deeply about your safety.
We care deeply about your security.
That is why the MMC for Public Safety, Cllr David Tembe was here on Thursday to deploy an additional 100 Police Officers to increase safety, visibility, and responsiveness.
Since January, the JMPD has worked closely with the SAPS to bring lasting safety to this community.
To highlight a few successful interventions, since January, there have been 41 joint operations with the SAPS; 31 Buya Mthetho operations; 621 crime prevention interventions; 16 drunk driving operations.
These various interventions have resulted in close to 50,000 vehicles searched, and 168 arrests for a variety of offences.
I am also aware of various safety initiatives that are community led. I know that, often the first respondents to scenes of criminal incidents are members of local structures. I am aware of the collaboration between the community, SAPS and JMPD which has resulted in the formation of a local security cluster which has been effective in the fight against crime in Soweto. We welcome such joint efforts as it demonstrates a willingness for us to work together to create a safer Soweto.
There is work being done everyday to ensure that the residents of Soweto and the City as a whole, live lives of dignity, and receive necessary services from the municipality.
Response to Memorandum
Good people of Soweto,
On 21 June you marched to the Council and delivered 22 memoranda. I want you to know that I together with my Office analysed each and everyone.
What was clear was that 90% of the issues that you delivered to me relate to Eskom.
But
But before we address those Eskom related issues, allow me to give the residents some feedback on service delivery issues which were raised by communities. Allow me to respond to specific issues related to the matters directed at the City, some of which I have outlined earlier.
The memos from Protea South, addressed the issue of the informal settlement. The plan is to resettle the communities and then the overflow will be relocated to the Lufhereng Project. Our teams in Region G are currently busy with that process.
The community of Naledi also raised the issue of the three informal settlements, namely Naledi 1, 2 and 3. In this regard, Naledi 2 is already being removed. Naledi 1 and 3 are being attended to.
In Naledi 1, the Department if Human Settlements under MMC Mlungisi Mabaso, is currently implementing the Upgrading of Informal Settlements Programme (or UISP). To date, the Human Settlements Department has implemented re-blocking or pegging of the stands.
In Naledi 3 there is a relocation programme being panned. The informal settlement is located on PRASA-owned land. Aside from this, the land is located in environmentally sensitive areas, hence the relocation.
Residents of Soweto,
Pimville and Klipspruit, you raised the issue of Chicken Farm Informal Settlement.
We have identified the issues relating to undocumented migrants, which must be managed within the legal framework of the country and the responsible Departments and Agencies. We have therefore engaged with the National Departments of Home Affairs, Social Development, and the SAPS. This includes the Maseru Informal Settlement.
As a parallel process, we have engaged Eskom, and Chicken Farm, which is part of the UISP, in order to ensure that power can be supplied there, equally the Joburg Department of Human Settlements, working with other Entities are working on the supply of sanitation, water and electricity. The Maseru Informal Settlement is not part of this programme.
An issue that came through in all the memos was financial assistance for the elderly and financially disadvantaged.
Expanded Social Package
We understand that South Africans are grappling with a bleak economy and the majority of the senior citizens struggle to remain independent of state grants. During the march, I listened to some to uGogo who could not access the City’s Expanded Social Package.
Gogo, today we have brought our officials to help you apply for it.
I am aware of the hardships that you are facing. Many people are unemployed, and many struggle to make ends meet. The City of Joburg under the indigent program called the Expanded Social Package (ESP) offers the elderly access to Free Basic Services (FBS) targeting senior citizens whose monthly income does not exceed R6 281.13.
These rebates include access to water, electricity, rates, sewer and refuse. The Rates Rebate is limited to homeowners whose property value does not exceed (R2.5-million) R2 5 000 000.00.
This programme is designed to help those who cannot afford rates, to access free basic services from the City.
In order to qualify, you:
• Must be a South African Citizen
• Must reside within the City of Johannesburg boundaries
• Household Income should not exceed R6 281 on a monthly basis (this includes pensions, investments, and other financial resources available)
Officials from the ESP Desk are here today; please go to them to apply.
We also have a team from the Revenue Shared Services Centre that is here today, where you can pay, make payment arrangements, or dispute your municipal account.
Bagaetsho, if you can afford to pay, please pay your rates and levies to the City. These monies enable us to advance service delivery programmes such as the ESP and other intervention programmes.
We cannot support ESP, without your support. We cannot provide housing without your support. So when you work with us, by contributing and paying for the services, we are able to ensure that we continue to render services and provide social and economic interventions that will have a long-lasting and positive impact on our City.
Eskom Engagements
Now let us speak about Eskom.
First, it is important for all of our residents to understand that the City has no jurisdiction over Eskom. The CEO of Eskom does not report to me; he reports to a Board, and he reports directly to the Minister of Public Enterprises, Pravin Gordhan.
I cannot tell Eskom what to do.
What I can do, and what I have been doing is to fight for you. We have been working with the Eskom and engaging with them for months.
In fact, when we came into office, one of the very first issues that I had to contend with as a newly elected Mayor, was the issue of Eskom in Soweto. At the time I had no staff and no MMCs. Yet I immediately engaged Eskom on your behalf.
Since
Since December last year, we have been in constant dialogue with Eskom. In all of my conversations and meetings, I have engaged in good faith with Eskom, affording them the time and space required to address these issues.
When
you marched to the City, we subsequently invited Eskom to provide a response and to work with us in coming up with a sustainable solution to addressing the issues which have plagued Soweto for years.
On 12 July, I wrote to the Ministers of Public Enterprises, Finance, and Mineral Resources & Energy, and the Eskom CEO, requesting their intervention. In my letter, I asked the Ministers and the CEO to consider writing off Soweto’s debt and to reconsider a different debt repayment model.
We have done this for many residents in the City. Since 2019, we have written off close to R44 million of debt in Region D which includes Soweto. I understand that Eskom debt in Soweto is a major problem, however, we must ask ourselves whether this debt is recoverable? I tabled this question to Eskom, and I have yet to receive a response from the Ministers.
I also requested Eskom and the Ministers to engage us on the following considerations:
- The introduction of alternative energy supply and/or consideration of an energy mix solution
- Fixing of ailing infrastructure and effective maintenance thereof;
- Reinstatement of Eskom community liaison offers
- A relook at the Eskom 60 % threshold policy of reconnection
- An electricity operational strategy in Soweto and other areas
- Developing an approach to address illegal connections, meter bypassing and tampering, unauthorized operations on the network, infrastructure vandalism and theft
- The non-payment and/or non-purchasing of electricity tokens
- Intervention on NERSA tariff hikes
Again, the Ministries of Public Enterprises and Finance acknowledged receipt of my correspondence; however, no response has been forthcoming.
With
all the attempts my office has been engaging in with Eskom, we are yet to receive a concrete plan that ca n be present ed to Soweto.
All this time we have been doing our very best to mediate between Eskom and the reside nts Indeed, we have built a good working relationship between the City and Eskom.
Yet these engagements have not produced the change that is urgently needed and being demanded by the residents.
Certainly,
I can understand that my attempts to manage the City’s relationship with Eskom and to afford it the time and space it needs have been misconstrued as an to protect and
shield them from the residents.
As
much as you feel let down by Eskom, I must admit that I too, am feeling let down.
I
would like to re assure you the people of Soweto of my and the Multiparty Government’s support. Y ou came to us for help, and I want you to know that w e hear d you loud and clear.
We
have listened to you, and we are here to say that if Eskom do not produce a concrete action plan with timelines and if the M inister does not respond to us in writing within the next 14 working days with a plan of action I will personally lead a march with the resident s to Eskom in efforts of getting a n effective timely solution.
We
will announce a date.
I want my counterparts in National government to come down and help us, and work with us. We are not looking to create an adversarial relationship, but I want Eskom to know that our people are in pain.
Let us help each other. Let us work together.
Conclusion
Residents of Soweto,
The Multi-Party Government is at work in this community and the entire City. This government is stronger and more stable than before.
The strength of our Multi-Party Government depends on us building strong communities across Johannesburg. We need Soweto and our residents to support us in our mission to rebuild and repair our beautiful City.
Ke a leboga. Thank you and God bless.
ENDS.
For media queries, please contact:
Mabine Seabe
Director: Mayoral Communication
Private Office of the Executive Mayor
084 677 7851
12/09/2022
