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The new manager driving the Inner City Charter, Santhurie Naidoo, says the charter is being delivered. "Once it is achieved we shouldn't stop. It's got to be an ongoing thing."
Johannesburg's inner city programme manager, Santhurie Naidoo
THERE is a new, young champion for the Inner City Charter. Santhurie Naidoo, who was with the Joburg department of development planning and urban management for the last three years, was appointed inner city programme manager in January.
Although only two months in the job, Naidoo says she is happy with the progress of the Inner City Charter deliverables so far, with the majority of projects meeting its deadlines.
"It is being delivered. The main deliverables have been the social stuff; the other has been economic development, which started off slowly but I am confident they will meet their deadlines."
Admitting that the charter is an ambitious project, she says the regeneration of the area may take longer than anticipated. She also believes that efforts should be sustained even once all deliverables have been met as inner cities tend to work in cycles of regeneration and degeneration.
"Once this [charter] is achieved we shouldn't stop. It's got to be an ongoing thing. We must have the next set of charter commitments in place or a formalised plan."
Naidoo has a down-to-earth manner and an approachable demeanour. "I am a very sociable person," she admits. And like any sociable person worth their salt, she likes good wine, good pizza and good people, in no particular order.
"Indian and Italian people are so alike - they like feeding people," she laughs.
Armed with a masters degree in town and regional planning, this born and bred Durbanite also tried her hand at economics with the Department of Trade and Industry, where she worked in research, particularly with the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa.
A hungry reader who is always in search of the truth, Naidoo sinks her teeth into anything from autobiographies on Richard Branson and Hillary Clinton to more scientific and esoteric fair such as Dianetics.
"I want to know why we are here and how we got here."
And then there is also more studying - she is working towards her second masters degree in infrastructure planning.
Exciting stuff on the go
With economic development close to her heart, Naidoo admits she can't wait to see the commitments in the charter being realised, especially those which touch people's lives directly.
"Being in this job has given me new enthusiasm for Joburg. There is a lot of exciting stuff going on." Like the 3 600 informal traders who will be on the new smart card system by the end of June.
"Ninety seven percent of traders will be accommodated through this formalised system. The other three percent will be brought into the second economy in areas such as security, cleaning and waste management."
Some of the commitments are lagging behind because of teething problems, she says. Initially, not all departments were clear on what was required of them.
Her departure point when taking the reigns from the interim inner city programme manager, Yael Horowitz, was therefore to start out with intensive one-on-one engagements at director level with various departments.
These engagements feed directly into the six working groups of the Inner City Charter, which meet at least once a month to discuss issues and problems with delivery.
The groups are urban management, safety and security; public spaces, arts, culture and heritage; economic development; social development; transportation; and residential development.
It follows that some "extremely minor changes which will not affect role players at large" will have to be made to the charter document, she says.
These include setting timeframes to deliverables which do not have any; deleting deliverables that are duplicated; and redefining some of the more esoteric deliverables, which were too vague, so that they are more tangible.
"The crux of the charter remains the same; that bottom line still stands."
Understandably, Inner City Charter commitments are a mixed bag of results, containing huge success and a couple of major set backs.
Achievements
The Inner City Partnership Forum, consisting of representatives from private and public stakeholders, is proving to be a very vocal and dynamic platform for engagement, says Naidoo.
"The representation from the private community is awesome, with the latter attending every single meeting." In July, her office will take over the running the forum, which is now handled by the Mayor's Office.
Delivery of transitional housing - there are now seven completed buildings - and public transport commitments through the Bus Rapid Transit system, are keeping apace.
The City is also managing to keep the theft of manhole covers to 20 percent - it stood at 80 percent at one point - while the Region F Office, the inner city, has "way surpassed its targets as well".
Other successful deliverables have made for cleaner and pedestrian-friendlier inner city streets through a number of initiatives: underground bins have been installed throughout the inner city - the latest being at the Ellis Park precinct; the roll-out of 2 000 street swivel bins; the acquisition of mechanical street sweepers; new high streets for Hillbrow and Yeoville; and a broadband infrastructure that will be rolled out in Yeoville in June.
And Joburg is growing in stature as a cultural capital, making it the most cosmopolitan African city in the country, she says.
With a cultural plan designed by the department of arts and culture completed, in the next few years a whole range of new and different cultural offerings will see the light.
Lagging behind
There are a couple of delivery snags, however. With 200 bad buildings in the inner city, it is paramount that private investors remain keen on investing in the inner city.
But with the Better Buildings Programme falling by the wayside, urban renewal projects have been something of a challenge in the inner city. And the Inner City Property Scheme, the new mechanism to speed up this process, has yet to be launched.
Approval of building plans and issues with rates and tariffs remain challenges for investors. One of the biggest problems is the rezoning of what used to be business properties to residential properties.
"We understand their frustration. Property developers are extremely valid role players in the inner city," she says, admitting the issue still needs to be resolved.
General by-law enforcement is another headache. "There seems to be some disjuncture of what a police officer can or cannot do," she says.
However, Johannesburg metro police has so far delivered on all its commitments, having deployed 410 additional police officers for the inner city and installed over 200 CCTV cameras.
Naidoo admits her days are busy, with things to do "just popping up".
Whether it is to make sure new chess pieces find their way to the public chess court in Joubert Park because the previous ones have vanished, or to have a high-profile meeting with a private investor, it's a hectic but fulfilling schedule for this energetic manager, who admits getting impatient with incompetence.
She believes she brings integrity to the job and with the contacts she has built up over the years in the development planning and urban management department, will bring a strong, co-ordinated effort to charter commitments.
"It is still early days, but things are swinging along nicely."
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