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In the first of many clean-ups, long-forgotten corners of the inner city are being swept and old buildings aired out as part of an intensive make-over plan for the next five years.
City employees pruned trees and swept the streets around the Ellis Park precinct
DUST was flying in the inner city, but it had little to do with the usual September berg winds. Instead, the bustle was caused by City entities and departments undertaking a week-long urban management campaign in the first week of September.
Their aim was to get the face of the inner city clean and shiny and to keep it that way. They will not be leaving soon, either.
All City units worked together to spruce up the area as part of a five-year regeneration plan, said Keith Swanepoel, the urban management manager and co-ordinator of the event. "We work according to a programme, doing a lot of the big stuff, getting the basics right."
The campaign falls under the commitments made in the Inner City Regeneration Charter and there will be monthly clean-ups, with regular checks by urban inspectors in all four quadrants. Faults will be logged and brought to the attention of the specific municipal entity, and will be followed up each month to check on progress.
Spring clean
From early morning to late afternoon, groups from Pikitup, City Parks, Johannesburg Roads Agency, metro police and other municipal entities were out on the streets of central Johannesburg. Trees were trimmed, paving was tidied, litter hotspots were cleaned up, illegal traders were issued with fines and goods were confiscated.
Metro police officers were on hand to remove informal traders trading illegally in undesignated spots
The Department of Home Affairs joined the drive, undertaking stop-and-search checks on passers-by to clamp down on illegal aliens.
Common problems were missing manhole and meter covers, and missing water valves. The metal covers are stolen and sold to scrap dealers, but will be replaced with concrete or fibreglass covers. There was urban decay in some areas, caused by illegal traders, homeless people and squatting.
Specific sites within the four inner city quadrants were identified because of the concentration of problems in these parts. Monday's drive focused on the Fordsburg area. "The area is not too bad," confirmed Rajash Seejarim, quadrant four leader after the clean-up.
Water leaks, illegal trading and a lack of road signs were the biggest problems.
Quadrant leaders focused on the Hillbrow area on Wednesday, 5 September; Ellis Park precinct on Thursday, and on Friday the central part of Joburg was targeted, in the blocks between Bree and Commissioner and Mooi and End streets.
Ellis Park
Quadrant one leader Sarel Ras said the Ellis Park precinct as a whole was not in as bad a shape as people would like to believe. The biggest headache was the number of invaded buildings and absentee landlords.
Workers from various City entities get ready to give the inner city a thorough scrubbing
"Fortunately we have big developers buying properties in the area."
A number of the heritage houses in Judith's Paarl and Bertrams were in such bad shape "they wobble on their legs", he said. These buildings are protected by the Provincial Heritage Resources Agency and the South African Heritage Resources Agency, with both unwilling to demolish any of the properties.
Owen Mhlanga is the quadrant two leader; his area includes Berea. Quadrant two is the hotspot of hotspots, an area spilling out of its seams and noted for a variety of criminal activities, including illegal dumping, loitering, drug trading and trafficking, prostitution and more.
Mhlanga was happy with the strong role the municipal entities played during the campaign and the improvements, which were already noticeable. "We will stay in this area until all the problems have been dealt with," he promised.
Esther Dipale, the councillor for the CBD, said the biggest problem was dealing with the hundreds of homeless people. She hoped that some relief would be found in the transitional housing the City had promised for delivery in late 2008.
The clean-up campaign works on the Gantt Chart, which illustrates a project schedule with clear, obtainable goals and target dates for each quadrant in the inner city. The department of urban management will this month report to the urban management section 79 committee on findings and future direction for the campaign.
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