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ONLINE forums have been set up for inner city residents, workers and investors to interact with the City. They can post comments, air grievances and whistle blow bad buildings.
AN electronic talk shop has been established to enable inner city residents and visitors, building owners and other interested parties to voice various service delivery grievances in the inner city, from urban management and housing to social and community issues.
The Braamfontein precinct is one of the inner city regeneration success stories
Shaun O'Shea, the manager for stakeholder management and liaison in Region F, which runs the portal, notes that it is important to have such a platform because Joburg's central business district is a complex area and everyone needs to be heard.
"We have over a million people living in the inner city; I would even say it's about close to two million people who come into the inner city on a daily basis, who also live and work in the inner city and there are various issues that affect them all, from urban management issues to housing issues to social and community issues, et cetera," he says.
Called Inner City Forums, the talk shops are designed to improve efficiency in the delivery of essential services. "I think some of the frustrations from members of the public are that the City is this monster that doesn't interact with its residents and business associations. This is just one of the mediums we are looking at [to bridge that gap]."
The forums are not restricted to inner city dwellers, he points out; they are open to everyone who visits the inner city. "We wanted to set up something that will enable the man on the street - and not necessarily somebody who lives in the area but also people who work in the inner city and people who travel through the inner city - an outlet to communicate with all the relevant role players," he explains.
Register to use
To participate in the forums, users need to register on the City of Joburg website by clicking on the forums link on the right-hand side of the homepage. Personal details for registration will be required, including a unique username and password which will then be sent to the provided email address along with an activation link for future reference.
The forums were set up in early July and have just fewer than 50 members. In the next few months, O'Shea notes that his Office will embark on a massive publicity drive to market the forums to all Joburgers and increase interactivity. "We are going on an intensive communications drive to publicise it electronically, in print media and on radio. Hopefully, once the public PR starts on the forums [they] will pick up and a lot more people [will] sign on."
Littering and illegal dumping is a big challenge in the inner city
There are different categories on the forums to comment or post grievances; however, non-registered users are unable to interact. The categories include safety and security; arts, culture, sports and entertainment; urban management; inner city developments; municipal services; and transport - these are aligned with the categories in the Inner City Regeneration Charter, O'Shea notes.
"For instance, you would find somebody who has a housing issue or a bad building issue; they would then post their comment or their question on the forum [under the same category]."
Derogatory, inflammatory and highly political statements will be omitted, O'Shea warns sternly. "We don't want to post anything that is inflammatory or highly political or denigrates any one of the elite officials. We don't want to post that kind of stuff," he emphasises.
"You may come here as a visitor and either have a good or bad experience; we want to get feedback from the people. If there is something you need to criticise please do; constructive criticism is always good but [we would also like feedback] where the City has delivered on certain issues."
Moderator
Moderators manage the forums, monitor complaints and forward them to O'Shea, whose task it is to ensure that each complaint is forwarded to the relevant department and is attended to. A 24-hour response turnaround time has been set to make the system more efficient because "otherwise people lose interest".
"Genuine comments are forwarded to me by the moderators and then I have a look at it and then say it's fine you can post it. I will then ensure that we get the appropriate response from the relevant departments and also make sure that if it is a service delivery issue that the call gets logged and relevant action is taken," he explains.
A troublesome issue that O'Shea thinks Joburgers should raise in the forums is that of bad buildings, which have overrun some parts of the CBD. One of the City's priorities, he says, is to combat bad buildings and "one of our strategies is to try to get to a building before it becomes a bad building".
Combating bad buildings may cut vagrant and criminal hideouts and enhance urbanisation and the aesthetics of the inner city.
Residents are able to sign up on the forums using pseudonyms, allowing them to report bad buildings and other service delivery issues anonymously. "We are asking people to anonymously report if they know and see something illegal happening, [so that] we can make sure that it gets to our safety department and our legal team can investigate."
The inner city forums are tailored to help the City deliver essential services more adequately and efficiently, notes O'Shea, adding that in the long run the forums might have an impact on Joburg's status as a world-class African city. "This is one of the ways that we can improve on our communications."
He believes his Office has the capacity to maintain the forums. "I think we do have the capacity from the regional side to respond to the issues that we are responsible for. Obviously it would be a little more difficult if we are looking at some of the [municipal-owned entities] for example, because we are not responsible for their turnaround but we can certainly put pressure on them and make sure that it does happen," he explains.
Improve
The forums will also help the City to improve urban management and rid the inner city of its bad reputation, which it has had for years - that of being seen as a frightening no-go area drowning in crime and grime. "We know that there is still a lot that we need to do, but I think we are making progress."
The inner city is home to thousands of foreigners making a living here
To have a well-managed inner city, O'Shea says that people's attitudes about littering, particularly, need to be changed. He knows his department has its work cut out for it in terms of marketing, communications and ensuring that perceptions are changed.
"I think our role as communications people and the media is to ensure that we start changing those perceptions. The inner city is full of vibrancy and coming out here brings a different feeling to being in Sandton or a shopping mall."
Inner city users need to start claiming ownership of their place of work, play and life, and start taking civic pride in it. "Our campaign slogan says, ‘It's my inner city, let's keep it clean'. This is done to create a sense of civic pride. There is going to be a lot more residential developments in the inner city so we are going to have a lot more residents and they need to claim ownership of it and take pride in it because we need the community to start being educators, hence the forums, because that's a way for the community to interact with the City."
Every inner city user or resident is encouraged to participate in the forums and acquaint themselves with council by-laws, especially those that govern the inner city, O'Shea urges. "It's extremely important because we've got to have a well-governed city and the only way to have a well-governed city is by people adhering to those policies.
Immigrants
"We are also trying to set up information-sharing sessions with different communities on council policies. Linked to that is working with foreign nationals and making them part of society but also making sure that they understand this city that they are coming to is also governed by relevant laws."
O'Shea notes that overall, the forums will give everyone an opportunity to be heard. "People get frustrated when they are not heard and I think it's a way for them to be heard." He hopes that in the long run the forums will help promote the inner city as a tourism destination not just for locals but for overseas visitors as well.
Ultimately, the forums will help dispel bad perceptions about Joburg, he says. "One of the things that we need to stress is that the inner city has always been given bad perceptions by the media and also to a large extent by communities.
"That's why we felt it was important to set something up on the website which would be a kind of interactive forum where you as a community member can post your question and we can respond to it immediately."
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