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Stakeholders are rising to the challenge of the Inner City Regeneration Charter, with plenty of deliverables being achieved.
INNER city charter commitments have reached an all time high with an overall score of 80 percent on charter deliverables achieved for 2009/2010 compared to 66 percent in the previous period.
Executive mayor Amos Masondo chairs the Inner City Partnership Forum (Photo: Enoch Lehung, City of Johannesburg)
The findings of an independent assessment on charter commitments done by Thabiso Consulting was given at the 11th Inner City Partnership Forum held on 19 October at the Parktonian Hotel in Braamfontein.
The Inner City Regeneration Charter was adopted in 2007 by the City and private sector stakeholders to halt inner city decline. It is now in its third year and has a budget of over R5-billion, set aside by the City for use over a period of five years. Matching this commitment, private sector investors have invested billions in property and public environment upgrades in the area, and continue to do so.
The Inner City Partnership Forum is chaired by Executive Mayor Amos Masondo, who has made inner city regeneration one of his mayoral priorities during his second term in office. All City departments and municipal-owned entities, as well as the private and social sectors are represented on it.
Region F
So far, 60 out of a total of 269 commitments stipulated in the charter in the six sectors had been fully achieved, confirmed Diggie Mseme, the director at Thabiso Consultancy, presenting the findings to the forum. The six sectors are urban management and safety and security; public spaces, arts, culture and heritage; economic development; social development; transportation; and residential development.
Jewel City, a symbol of the City's vision in action
The highest score in delivery has come from the department of development planning and urban management and the social services sector, which achieved an 89 percent delivery in this period. In particular, Region F was singled out for its submission and commitment to the process, with regular block-by-block blitzes, service delivery breakdowns which were escalated and visible policing singled out by stakeholders.
A notable achievement is that of the department of economic development, which struggled to gain momentum in the first year of assessment, scoring only 35 percent, but which has shown a delivery of 71 percent for this year.
Most significant achievements for economic development include the advancement in the business process outsourcing and the broadband sectors, while Jewel City was singled out as the City’s vision in action with public and private investment turning this precinct into a model area.
City is delivering
Feedback from stakeholders was also positive, with 63 percent of those participating in the assessment feeling that the City was delivering, Mseme continued.
“The most important finding from stakeholders is that the charter needs to be reviewed and some commitments need to be altered,” he said. Overall stakeholders saw the effects of visible policing, the Bus Rapid Transit system and the growing amount of public art in the inner city as positive spin-offs but poor delivery in the billing system and with clearance certificates, coupled with informal trading and bad buildings, continued to be cause for concern.
The Eland in Braamfontein is just one of a host of public art in the inner city
In general, public perception of the inner city was positive with people seeing the possibility of coming “to live, work and play in the inner city”, concluded Mseme.
The City would be relooking at all deliverables and commitments in November together with stakeholders from the six working groups to chart the way forward, confirmed Ros Greeff, the member of the mayoral committee for development planning and urban management.
Rissik Street Post Office
Also on the forum agenda were presentations on the Rissik Street Post Office given by Kululwa Muthwa of the Johannesburg Property Company. The historic post office was gutted by a fire in November 2009 but is considered to be salvageable.
In phase one of the reconstruction plan, the appointed contractor has been clearing the debris, stabilising certain inner structures and sifting through the building for salvageable remains. The next intervention will be to construct a roof over the building, which is anticipated to begin in December 2010.
Phase two, which will include the complete rehabilitation and reconstruction of the building, will begin in April 2011 after the necessary funding has been obtained.
Presentations were also given by Medecins Sans Frontieres in Johannesburg and Youth-Ina-City, an information and skills development centre in the area.
The full charter assessment scores per sector over the three year period are:
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Sector
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2007 – 2008
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2008 – 2009
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2009 – 2010
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Economic development
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35%
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58%
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71%
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Arts, culture and heritage
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55%
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64%
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80%
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Dev planning and urban management
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72%
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82%
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89%
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Community development
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62%
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72%
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82%
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Residential development
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48%
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56%
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69%
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Transport
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53%
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65%
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84%
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Total
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54%
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66%
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80%
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The next Inner City Partnership Forum meeting will take place on 23 November.
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