Mayor addresses residents at IDP meeting in Brixton
The mayor promised a world-class African city to residents at the IDP meeting.
An Integrated Development Plan (IDP) meeting was held on April 2, at the Brixton Multipurpose Centre, to review the document with stakeholders and community members. The document focused on the issues faced by the city and issues affecting women across Johannesburg.
Women came out in numbers to listen and participate in this year’s IDP session, having a lively exchange of ideas and perspectives with the metropolitan municipality council members and the mayor.
Speaker of Council Margaret Arnolds reviewed the previous plan saying, “The IDP serves as a roadmap for the city’s growth and development. It outlines strategic objectives and initiatives across various sectors including infrastructure, housing, economic development, social services, and environmental sustainability.”
The 2024/25 draft of the IDP was presented by the Mayor of Johannesburg, Kabelo Gwamanda, as he explained that this event is to promote transparency, inclusivity, and accountability between the city and community members.
The document looked into challenges affecting women in the city, such as inadequate women’s economic empowerment programs, inadequate participation in skills development initiatives, gender-based violence and femicide, lack of access to land and housing (homeless women), inadequate reliable public transport, women’s safety, insufficient support for elderly women, women with disabilities, health, parks, social and community facilities, and education.
The mayor also looked at the strategies to address these issues and develop the city into ‘a world-class African city’. He assured residents of the success of his vision to transform the city saying, “To ensure a better life for everyone we will start prioritising basic services like clean water, reliable electricity, and efficient waste management to improve residents’ quality of life.”
The presentation also highlighted the budget of the plan. “With a budget of R81.8m, 60% of the Capex budget will be spent on infrastructure development and refurbishment and sustainable service delivery, then the remaining budget will be spent on deprived areas,” said Gwamanda.
Residents shared their experiences and offered their insights and aspirations for the future of the city. Lauren Madudula, Ward 124 committee member said, “I hope the mayor and the MECs keep to their words this year; it is better because they gave us their direct contacts and this will make it easy for us as ward committee members to have direct contact with them if we have issues.”
To read the current IDP document online, click here.
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