The City of Joburg’s MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Services (EIS), Cllr Mpho Moerane, yesterday launched the City’s 2021 Arbor Week in Emndeni, Soweto, by planting a wild olive tree in the park in the area.
The launch was part of the MMC’s new weekly Accelerated Service Delivery campaign, which started in Zola North, Soweto, last week.
The tree is one of 1 000 trees that will be planted in the region throughout the Arbor Month. Joining the MMC was Transport MMC, Cllr Nonhlanhla Makhuba, as well as his departmental stakeholders, Joburg Water, Pikitup, City Power, JRA and community members.
The clean-up focused on waste collection, removing illegal dumping and attending to vandalised infrastructure in the area and surrounding suburbs. City Power attended to faulty street lights, while JRA repainted street markings and removed dirt and rubble from blocked storm water pipes.
The MMC also visited the local library, where staff briefed him on the challenges faced by the facility. He encouraged the community to take ownership of the facility and protect it from theft and vandalism. The library serves mostly students and pupils from surrounding areas.
“The City of Joburg spends money to fix, upgrade and replace damaged and stolen infrastructure. However, it is the responsibility of the community to ensure that their facilities are taken care of and protected from vandalism and damage. The facility serves them and they should protect it,” said Cllr Moerane.
Joburg Water officials also attended to water leakages. JRA officials briefed the MMC about the challenges they face when trying to attend to faulty water infrastructure. Often the delays are caused by escalation processes, which hinder the timeous attention to complaints and fixing of faulty infrastructure.
Zola North inspection
MMC Moerane also visited the site of last week’s Accelerated Service Delivery campaign in Zola North to check on progress made. He found residents engaging in illegal dumping at the sites that were cleaned last week, and suggested alternative measures available in instances where they had extra rubble or waste, which could not wait for the weekly waste collection services.
He was, however, encouraged to find most of the issues resolved, including traffic lights, street lights, clean environment, street markings and how community members were even cleaning the waste bins at the site. He learnt that unemployed youth came together and charged a fee for each household to have their waste bin cleaned after waste had been collected.
The Accelerated Service Delivery campaign, which was launched in mid-August by the City’s new Mayor, Cllr Jolidee Matongo, in downtown Johannesburg, was rebranded from the previously named 120 Days of Service Delivery campaign. It had successfully launched earlier in the year following the relaxation of Covid-19 restrictions. Zola North had earlier in the year been the site of the #KleenaJoburg Reloaded Campaign, which is another leg of the Accelerated Service Delivery campaign.
Background
The #KleenaJoburg Reloaded campaign assumed an integrated services delivery approach where the City’s entities join forces to render a variety of services. Introduced in late 2019, the campaign’s official launch was interrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic and its lockdown restrictions. Following the lifting of some of the Covid-19 lockdown restrictions, the campaign was relaunched as #KleenaJoburg Reloaded, due to specifications and guidelines of the Covid-19 safety precautions.
Regional launches:
The #KleenaJoburg Reloaded campaign started in Region A at the Boulders Shopping centre in Midrand in August 2020, where clean-up operations included clamping down on businesses that were operating illegally, clean-up operations and health and wellness awareness campaigns, among others. The campaign then moved to Region E in Alexandra, again in Region A in Ivory Park, then back at the Boulders shopping centre in Region A. It then launched in Yeoville, before moving to Region D in Diepkloof on October 12, followed by Emndeni. The campaign continued in the surrounding regions till the end of the year. It resumed at the beginning of the year in different regions, until it returned to the inner city in April, and later in Zola North and other areas in Soweto.
For more information, contact:
Stanley Itshegetseng
Deputy Director: Communication and Stakeholder relations
Office of the MMC – EISD
Cell: 0837024778
03/09/2021
