Residents attend Ntirhisano meeting

Statistics South Africa shows that the unemployment rate has increased to 26 percent.

The announcement was made by the MEC for Infrastructure in Gauteng, MEC Nandi Mayathula-Khoza, during the Ntirhisano programme held at the Rabie Ridge Community Hall on Thursday last week.

Community members and officials from the Joburg Property Company also attended the Ntirhisano programme.

The MEC was accompanied by the MEC of Economic Development, MEC Lebogang Maile and Ms Christine Walters, the MMC of Transport in Gauteng.

“As the Gauteng government, we are faced with challenges to reduce poverty, unemployment and inequality. We hope that through Ntirhisano, we can achieve these goals by engaging with the communities. This programme is in line with our National Development Plan,” said MEC Mayathula-Khoza.

The Ntirhisano programme is a collaborative service delivery system that aims to improve government’s service delivery capacity and build an active public service that is responsive to the needs of the people. It seeks to empower communities to drive their own development.

This service delivery model is anchored on three pillars – respond, resolve and grow, which seeks to respond to the community’s issues, resolve service delivery challenges and grow Gauteng communities.

“There are about 104 townships and 189 informal settlements registered in the city registry. We have a plan in the city to roll it out through our infrastructure master plan to speed up the process,” said MEC Mayathula-Khoza.

She said the city has set aside R50-million that will be used in the development of a housing project on a piece of land in Rabie Ridge but claimed that the process to implement it was slow. She promised to those who packed the Rabie Ridge Hall that she would engage with other departments to ensure the process is run speedily.

In an attempt to re-ignite the township economy, the city has launched the Jozi@Work programme to give local businesses the opportunity to apply for work as advertised through the tendering system, which many claimed only favour a few individuals or ‘preferred candidates’.

The city has already spent R4,7-million on this programme.

Residents expressed concern about the lack of power supply in informal settlements.

She said plans are in place for the electrification of informal settlements.

The senior citizens, who are currently squatting at the council premises in Rabie Ridge, appealed to the government to identify land for them.

They also said there is a need for more social workers in the Rabie Ridge area.

They demanded that the Gauteng Department of Education build “proper schools”.

The residents also demanded a 24-hour clinic.

MEC Maile said his department has budgeted R250-billion, which is available for entrepreneurs to apply for their businesses.

This was a contribution and commitment made possible through the partnership with First National Bank.

MEC Maile said he was looking forward to meeting with local entrepreneurs in the near future but encouraged those already in business to ensure their businesses are about being sustainable.

Residents are urged to use the Ntirhisano rooms to register service delivery complaints as a result of service failures from any sphere of government.

They can contact the Ntirhisano hotline on 08600 11000 or access the Ntirhisano website at www.gautengonline.gov.za