​Just three weeks ago I stood before Council and the residents of Johannesburg, on behalf of the Multi-Party Government (MPG), to outline our vision for Johannesburg: building a City of Opportunity.

While our problems are vast and at times complex, they certainly aren’t insurmountable; and in order to solve these problems we must start somewhere and build on from there. Therefore, we have termed the short-term phase of change for the City A Golden Start.

In rolling out A Golden Start for the City of Johannesburg, the Multi-Party Government has broadly identified 7 strategic objectives that will be the force behind our programme of delivery for the City. They are as follows:

• A city that gets the basics right
• A safe and secure city
• A caring city
• A business-friendly city
• An inclusive city
• A well-run city
• A smart city
  
  As the Multi-Party Government, we stand firmly as one behind these objectives, and we want to work together with the residents to achieve them.
  
  The reality is that fixing Johannesburg and building a City of Opportunity requires not only political will, which we are not short of, but it also requires the City to have money in the bank to properly fund and manage our service delivery programme.
  
  Over the last two-years, like many of the residents who have been and continue to be under sustained financial pressure, the City has also had to battle with a harsh macro-economic environment fuelled by the COVID-19 pandemic and exacerbated by the July 2021 unrest. This is our reality, and we must do everything as the City, together with residents, to work with what we have so that we can work towards stabilising our finances and in turn accelerating service delivery.
  
  It starts with getting the basics right - combating corruption and enforcing the City’s by-laws.
  
  As such, as of today we will be intensifying Operation Buya Mthetho with a focus on aggressively collecting monies owed to the City by government at all levels, residents, and businesses.
  
  In this light and in the spirit of enforcing the idea that the by-laws of the City and the laws of South Africa apply to us all, regardless of rank or status, I have written to the Gauteng Provincial Government to bring to their attention the millions of much-needed rands they owe to the City of Johannesburg. Noting that if they fail to pay, we will cut them off!
  
  The monies owed to the City amount to R841,441,441.53, with the Gauteng Department of Health leading the pack. The breakdown is as follows as of 31 January 2022:

04/02/2022