City of Johannesburg give Region C IDP presentation at Roodepoort City Hall
The morning session of IDP day allowed residents to engage directly with CoJ entities.
In a city stretched thin one can only hope for a trickling down of resources.
As a mandated interaction between residents and municipal entities, the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) held an Integrated Development Planning (IDP) session at Roodepoort City Hall on April 1.
Focusing on Region C, senior officials of the City heard suggestions and complaints from residents across the region in the hope of formulating a guiding document to improve the City’s fortunes.
The public consultation meeting forms part of a series of region-specific meetings to be hosted across the CoJ in a bid to collate public comments to finalize the IDP, budget, and proposed tariffs. The detailed draft document outlines the City’s intentions for the financial years running from 2022/ 23 to 2026/ 27 and includes related budget and draft tariff information.
The diversity of Region C spans the full socio-economic spectrum of South Africa and this was reflected in the gripes raised by residents. Those living in informal settlements were bussed to the session to highlight the increasing crime rate and lack of proper sanitation, among a host of other grievances. Members of these communities pleaded with the city to make more land available for the construction of low-cost housing to eradicate informal settlements.
Suburban residents bemoaned billing irregularities and inconsistent property valuations as well as the constant electricity outages blamed on a lack of visible security. The community pleaded with the executive to invest in public safety measures to safeguard infrastructure from theft and destruction. Across all communities, a general improvement in service delivery was requested.
The day was split into two phases with the morning session preceding the presentation allowing residents to interact with the regional management of each municipal department. The entities that have the most direct influence on the daily lives of residents are Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA), Johannesburg Water, and City Power.
The Johannesburg Water table was manned by Roodepoort Depot Managers, Kobus Beukes, and Nico Singh. The pair stressed the importance of logging calls and safekeeping reference numbers as these track everything from the timestamped dispatching of repair teams, accurate work orders, and completion. Regarding informal settlements, water in those areas is provided via portable water tanks serviced by Johannesburg Water but again, theft and vandalism was key challenge.
Also read: Residents are urged to participate in Region C Integrated Development Plan meeting
City Power had the full complement of regional management ready for community engagement. Roodepoort Service Delivery Centre Manager, Sibusiso Xulu, stated that the entity’s fortunes had improved in recent weeks thanking the community and authorities for the subsequent apprehension of cable thieves and vandals. Xulu believed a successful IDP would provide an increased budget for City Power to carry out maintenance and beef up security efforts.
Esther Schmidt from JRA’s Traffic Engineering and Analysis Department was joined by Operations Manager, Erick Tshikhudo. Regarding the region’s precarious bridges scenario, Schmidt stressed the priority was to secure the safety of commuters, despite the accompanying inconvenience. The Kilburn Street bridge and Hendrik Potgieter Road detour are high-profile issues with the officials hopeful that the provincial roads department will meet their Hendrik Potgieter Road deadline. As for Kilburn Street, JRA is awaiting approval of a new Environmental Impact Assessment as the one for the previously approved project has expired.
Chairperson of Section 79 Committee Chairpersons Councillor Lloyd Phillips led the draft IDP session and reiterated the CoJ executive’s commitment to their residents.
Phillips said, “The inputs require us to re-align priorities in line with the wishes of the communities. We will move with speed to ensure that we finalise the IDP and start with the implementation. We have the mandate to deliver services and assure residents that the consultation process is authentic and not merely a ticking-box exercise.”
