In a bid to accelerate service delivery, the City of Joburg plans to increase expenditure on basic services like housing, transport, water and electricity provision, and the construction and repair of the roads network from 58% in 2015/16 to 71% in the 2019/20 budget.
The municipality has to date attracted over R12 billion worth of investment, staying on course to achieve its target of R16 billion by June 2019.
These were some of the major announcements by the Executive Mayor, Herman Mashaba, during the delivery of his third annual State of the City Address in the oval shaped Council Chamber in Braamfontein on Tuesday, 30 April 2019.
Mashaba said that the multi-party government would increase its capex budget allocations in the 2019/20 budget in a bid to improve service delivery.
The mayor noted that his administration had increased the budget for electrifying informal settlements from R260-million over three years, to a budget now proposing R750 million for the next three years.
“As we look ahead to the coming financial year, our multi-party government will continue to focus on getting the basics of local government right,” he said.
Mashaba also said that the City’s multi-party administration had achieved higher levels of investment in road resurfacing, electricity grid stabilisation and sewer line replacement than have ever been realised in the City’s history.
“We are committed to accelerate the delivery of change to our residents. I have always maintained that it is the change that delivers jobs, that holds the greatest prospect for our City and its people,” the mayor explained.
He said that the City would establish an online job seekers database to boost work opportunities. “When people find the dignity of work, they have the means to improve their own lives better than the government has ever proven capable of achieving. When this happens, the resources of the government can be focussed on a declining number of people who need our help the most,” he said.
Mashaba hoped that increasing levels of economic activity in the City would produce a demand for more businesses to employ more people. “The role of an effective government is to create an enabling environment, in which the economic potential of individuals and businesses flourish.”
He highlighted that last year alone, the City created about 110 000 new jobs, reducing unemployment by at least 1.1%. “The economic growth rate of our City is growing for the first time in a long time,” he noted.
He also said that the City’s economic growth rate had increased from 1.4% to 1.7%.
Mashaba said that in the current financial year, 22% of the City’s procurement spent had been directed at SMMEs. About 23 277 SMMEs have to date been supported by the City since his administration took office.
He noted that the City would continue to harness the potential of small businesses to generate considerable employment.
Mashaba also said that the Johannesburg inner city was a key node of development, which had attracted billions of rand in investment. More work would be done to entice investors to plough more money into the city.
“Our iconic skyline will feature cranes in the next months. The project of turning the inner city into a construction site has begun,” he noted.
