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The mayor has a vision for the city - and he is expected to outline how he plans to get there in his State of the City address.
WE'VE heard the State of the Nation address. The State of the Province stepped up to the podium two weeks ago. Tomorrow Executive Mayor Amos Masondo does his thing.
Executive mayor Amos Masondo has a vision for the City
He will highlight a number of issues on Thursday, 11 March when he delivers his State of the City address.
Residents will be pleased to know that Masondo will stress that the City needs to address a number of basics: potholes; non-functioning traffic lights; unsecured and stolen manhole covers; blocked storm water drains; unaccounted-for water wastage; stolen electricity cables; illegal electricity connections; cable theft and sabotage; and illegally occupied buildings.
He has a vision for the city: "In this world-class African city for all, everyone will be able to enjoy decent accommodation, excellent services, the highest standard and safety, access to participatory governance, and quality community life in sustainable neighbourhoods and vibrant urban spaces."
Five priorities
Masondo will consider five manifesto priorities. Regarding education, the government is concerned to maintain the high percentage of children between the ages of seven and 15 - 98 percent - in school. Essential to this is to engage more with teacher organisations, as well as getting parents more involved in their children's education.
President Jacob Zuma said in his State of the Nation address on 11 February that there would be external exams at grades three, six and nine.
The second priority, health, will be premised on preventative rather than curative health, with delivery of quality health care in all City facilities being top of the list. The City is concerned with eliminating the long queues at clinics, and to deepen work on HIV and Aids.
The third priority is the economy, with employment creation, quality jobs and sustainable livelihoods of major concern to the City. "Johannesburg will continue to lead as South Africa's primary business city, a dynamic centre of production, innovation, trade, finance and services," says Masondo.
"This will be a city of opportunity, where the benefits of balanced economic growth will be shared in a way that enables all residents to gain access to the ladder of prosperity, and where the poor, vulnerable and the excluded will be supported out of poverty to realise upward social mobility," he continues.
On the agenda will be the need to identify "labour-absorbing sectors and investment of resources", in an effort to help create 4,5 million short-term job opportunities in the 2009-2014 period, as mentioned in the budget speech by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan almost three weeks ago.
The fourth priority is crime and corruption. The City will intensify its efforts to eradicate corruption within the council, with "decisive and bold action" taken against anyone found looting public resources.
And finally, is rural development.
"Rural development [is] to be more integrated and taken beyond implementation of projects," says Masondo. The City will be looking at infrastructure backlogs, food production and food security, especially in the economically depressed areas.
Masondo and his team also plan to accelerate access to housing and clean water.
Turnaround strategy
The mayor has identified a 10-point local government turnaround strategy to be applied in Joburg.
The first is a commitment to intensify and speed up service delivery. This will involve a verification of service backlogs, thus improving residents' access to water, sanitation, electricity, waste management and roads. The City is to look into the acquisition of "suitable land for formalisation and regularisation of informal settlements".
Secondly, it is to focus on local economic development, in line with national objectives of creating decent work, employment and growing the economy. This means sharing of best practices between and among municipalities and leveraging private sector investment.
Thirdly, the City is concerned with inter-governmental planning and integrated development planning. "National, provincial and municipal budgets [are] to be aligned to enable implementation of accelerated service delivery programmes," indicates the mayor.
A priority will be global warming, climate change programmes and reducing carbon emissions.
Another priority will be to deepen and refine the ward committee model, to make local government more participatory.
This will involve the amendment of the relevant legislation; reviewing and possibly re-aligning the role of community development workers; public participation as a means to strengthen residents' civic rights and responsibilities; and requiring ward committees to develop profiles of each city household.
The mayor will also talk about fixing administrative, institutional and financial problems in municipalities, as a sixth consideration.
This entails the "effective functioning of council committees to ensure good governance and political oversight"; clearly separating the legislative and executive functions; and reducing the reliance on consultants.
The City plans to address weak financial governance and recruit skilled personnel for key positions. Residents will be pleased to know that the City is to improve its capacity to develop and implement by-laws.
Plans are also afoot to improve intergovernmental relations. This principally involves the department of co-operative governance and traditional affairs strengthening its capacity to co-ordinate the local support programmes of other departments.
Masondo is concerned to intensify the fight against corruption, nepotism and all forms of misadministration. This means that the procurement and supply chain management processes must be strengthened to ensure that all forms of corruption are eradicated.
"Decisive and bold action [is] to be taken against anyone found to be looting state and public resources," he says.
This also means that the implementation of the performance management systems will be strengthened.
Election cycle
As an eighth strategy, the City is to adopt and implement a single election cycle for local, provincial and national governance. This will involve the synchronisation of financial cycles between all spheres of government and better alignment of planning priorities.
Another priority is looking at the relationship between municipalities and the ruling party. "[We need to] ensure [a] constructive relationship and that municipalities are not micro-managed by the party," says Masondo.
This means that the quality of candidates standing for elections must be examined, and that those candidates must be in good standing within their communities. It also means that administrative officials in municipalities must not hold political office-bearing positions. Standards and requirements for councillors will be set out in preparation for the 2011 municipal elections.
The final priority is the unity and coherence of the ANC and the alliance. This implies that there'll be regular interactions and engagements between the alliance partners at national, provincial, regional and branch level.
The alliance is to play a monitoring role over the local government turnaround strategy beyond the 2011 local government elections.
World Cup and BRT
Masondo will also talk about the FIFA 2010 World Cup™. Some 15 games are to be played in Joburg, with the opening and closing ceremonies taking place in the city. All the 2010 stadiums have now been completed.
He is concerned with two questions: how do we use the pressure that comes with 2010 to further deepen our own city departmental programmes? And, how do we ensure that 2010 leaves a lasting legacy that can benefit the citizens of Johannesburg beyond the World Cup?
The City is working on these questions, ensuring that the fan parks and stadiums are to be used to the fullest after the World Cup.
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