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It's been a year of adding to the trophy cupboard for Johannesburg, from national to international awards and recognition.
Executive mayor Amos Masondo and City manager Mavela Dlamini celebrate winning the provincial Vuna Award
(Photo: Enoch Lehung, City of Johannesburg)
WHEN your collection of wins can all but match that of Michael Phelps - the Beijing Olympics swimming sensation - you are a class act.
This year, the City of Johannesburg has again shown that it is growing in stature as a world-class city after it walked off with a wide range of awards and accolades, both in the national and international arena.
In its latest scoop, Johannesburg beat counterparts Ekurhuleni and Tshwane to take the provincial Vuna Awards 2008 Trophy for a consecutive year. The latest piece of silverware also came with a R1-million cheque.
The Vuna Awards is a Department of Provincial and Local Government initiative in partnership with the South African Local Government Association (Salga), the Development Bank of Southern Africa, and Productivity South Africa. The main aim is to reward municipalities that provide excellent service and governance to their communities.
The national Vuna Awards will be held later in December. In 2007, Joburg also walked off with the national prize.
Africa's commercial heart
But it is especially for its financial stability and commercial vitality that the City has been acknowledged over the past year.
Joburg kicked off 2008 with its first unqualified clean audit report from the auditor-general after it drastically overhauled its financial management over the last five years. It was also the only city in the country able to consolidate under one control the accounts of its core administration with municipal-owned entities, thereby meeting higher accounting standards.
And in the first MasterCard Worldwide Centres of Commerce™: Emerging Markets Index, Joburg was rated eleventh, making it the only African City in the top 20, far outshining peers such as Cape Town and Durban who were placed 33rd and 37th, respectively.
The index evaluated 65 emerging market cities to give investors a roadmap of where commerce is headed to next. It is an offshoot of the MasterCard Worldwide Centres of Commerce™, which is a larger effort to understand the role of cities in the global economy.
As a Centre of Commerce, Joburg came in at number 47, the only African city in the top 50, confirming that it is the economic leader on the continent. It was especially lauded for its "financial flow" and "ease of doing business dimensions".
Credit ratings and risk
Joburg also continues to improve its Fitch credit ratings; the ratings by the international ratings agency give an opinion on the relative ability of an entity to meet its financial commitments.
It has gone from a long-term national credit rating of A-(zaf) in 2003 to AA-(zaf) in 2008; its short-term national credit rating moved from F2(zaf) in 2003 to F1+(zaf) in 2008, demonstrating that Johannesburg has improved its performance considerably. And internationally, its short- and long-term international credit ratings now stand at F1+ and AA-, respectively.
Over the past year the City has also strived to improve its risk management portfolio, creating a robust risk management department that focuses on operational, strategic, financial, physical and reputational risk.
As a result, it won the inaugural Government Risk Management Initiative award in September, hosted by the Institute of Risk Management in South Africa.
Joburg was especially acknowledged for successfully forming the first independent group risk management committee within a municipality in South Africa. The committee consists of professionals in the field of risk and auditing, and provides an independent oversight function over the City's Johannesburg risk and audit services.
Creator of jobs
Joburg has also been acknowledged for being a job creator. In the last financial year, the City created 35 500 new jobs through 168 projects under various Extended Public Works Programme (EPWP) initiatives.
This amounted to 18 percent more jobs created than was originally targeted for this period. For this it received the Best Metropolitan Municipality Award from the national Department of Public Works at its EPWP Kamoso Awards in July.
Municipal-owned entities were not to be overshadowed, either. City Parks and Joburg Water both received accolades at the same event.
Joburg Water was recognised for Best Infrastructure Maintenance in the national category for its contribution towards the creation of employment through its flagship project, Operation Gcin'amanzi.
City Parks received the Best Project Municipal Award.
Liveable city
But it was in the international arena that the world really sat up and noticed the efforts of Johannesburg, in particular those of City Parks.
Joburg Water received the Isgidi Award for the 'best managed large facility in the country'
This year was the second time the utility walked off with gold at the international Liveable Communities Awards ceremony. Its Diepkloof Xtreme Park, created in just 24 hours, took second gold in the special projects category at the event, in Dongguan City, China in November.
The Klipriver Greening and Rehabilitation Project received a silver award in this category, while Cosmo City received silver in the built category. At the same event, the City took the criteria award, Planning for the Future, and the bronze award in the whole city category for cities of more than 750 000 people.
LivCom, as the awards are known, is a United Nations Environmental Programme initiative in which cities and municipalities are recognised for the effort they make to create liveable spaces for their inhabitants.
Joburg Water kept apace and received the Isgidi Award at the biennial Water Institute of Southern Africa's conference as the "best managed large facility in the country" earlier in the year.
The honour specifically recognised its management of the Olifantsvlei Treatment Works. Its Driefontein Wastewater Treatment Works was named "the best operated treatment facility in the country".
And finally, the head of the Johannesburg Fresh Produce Market, Kgosientso Ramokgopa, beat stiff national competition to become the Boss of the Year in 2008.
Looking ahead
While the City of Joburg bagged it big in 2008 it is far from complacent as it looks to the future.
Delivering his 2006-2008 mid-term report at the Metro Centre in October, Executive Mayor Amos Masondo promised that Johannesburg would continue to lead as South Africa's primary business city. He also planned to push its growth rate to 9 percent over the remaining years of his term, which ends in 2011.
"The pioneering spirit of Johannesburg - place of gold and place of opportunity - will continue to guide the city to a future of our choosing: a world-class African city for all."
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