A R101 million rand project, which will see each ward in Ekurhuleni receiving R1 million for the community to spend on developmental projects of their choice, was launched last week.
Speaking at the launch, the executive mayor, Clr Mondli Gungubele, who pronounced the intervention during the State of the City Address last year, said the time had come for communities to get actively involved in the development of their communities.
“The Lungile Mtshali Community Development Project is a ward-based project aimed at creating jobs and fighting poverty in the region. Such projects are pivotal for a municipality which has an unemployment rate of 28.8%, of which 40% is young people.
“This can also be viewed as the city’s intervention to build an active and responsive citizenry in our efforts to fast-track service delivery in the region.”
The mayor says people must not be misled to think that this is the entire budget for community and infrastructure development in the city, as the metro will continue delivering and broadening services to communities with its annual budget of R30 billion.
The Lungile Mtshali Community Development Project has created more than 3 000 jobs in the region. Projects will be centred around energy efficiency; water and sanitation; wetlands rehabilitation and waste management, greening and landscaping.
“Some people may think that the amount is not enough. However, for us it is not about the money but the intervention of building active and responsive citizenry who will be able to deal with the developmental issues of their areas, while at the same time addressing the scourge of poverty.
“This project allows our people to get directly involved in the upkeep of their areas and learn critical skills that will take them off the streets in the future,” Gungubele said.
The city will continue allocating the R1 million a ward for the next three financial years, starting this year.
Qualifying projects are intended to serve as a catalyst for skills growth, poverty alleviation, job creation and urban renewal.
Lungile Mtshali is a former councillor of Ekurhuleni who died after a short illness in 2010. At the time she was a member of the mayoral committee for finance.
She was known to be a servant of the people and was always at the forefront of the community’s needs. Just before she died, looking at poverty levels in the city, Mtshali had initiated a community development project known as the R1 million rand per ward, which was later officially named by the City of Ekurhuleni as the Lungile Mtshali Developmental Project, i her honour.
