Weekly Joburg City news roundup: What have you missed?
JOBURG – We take a look at news you might have missed from the City of Johannesburg last week.
Last week, the City of Johannesburg had to tackle a technical glitch in the budget speech debate and the Metro police chief paid a visit to Region B communities.
The week began with a debate on MMC for Finance Funzel Ngbenu’s maiden budget speech. The debate ended with the City potentially locking itself into a tight spot after its 2018/19 budget was approved, but not the tariffs that will partly fund the said budget.
The rejection of tariff increases by the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) on 29 May has left the council in a tricky situation. This is because the operational and capital expenditure budgets were approved in a report, but the tariffs that were tabled in a separate report were not.
The mayor’s office’s Tanya Hydenrych said this is a council-related matter and it will be resolved in the coming days.
Residents of the City of Joburg and other stakeholders had until 1 June to comment on the draft Air Pollution Control By-law and the draft Air Quality Management Plan. The draft by-law is aimed at regulating air pollution within the City. It provides a regulatory framework for the control of emissions from sources such as small industries, vehicles and fossil fuel-burning and provides for the declaration of the City as an air quality management zone.
Based on the number of applications registered to date, there are 596 schools where demand exceeds available spaces. Some of the schools in these areas have recorded between 1 538 and 1 960 applications for either Grade 1 or Grade 8. The Gauteng Department of Education said it will now start the placement process and schools will send offers of placement to parents from 18 July to 3 August.
Finally, the City’s Metro police chief, David Tembe, paid a visit to residents at Marks Park in Emmarentia where he vowed to tackle 10 problems in six weeks. He said that after six weeks, a report will be drafted and he wanted to know whether or not the public feels that Metro police’s interventions are working.
Tembe and his team held a session with community members and representatives from various wards in Region B. He said that by working with different international cities, he learned that a chief must first introduce himself to the community so that his department’s direction can be determined by residents.
Would you like to share your thoughts on this story? You can email our journalist on chantellef@caxton.co.za or our group editor on daniellap@caxton.co.za
