Metro goes to the people
A service delivery summit was held on Friday at the Springs Civic Centre Hall where Mayor Mondli Gungubele and the MEC for Local Government and Housing, Ntombi Mekgwe, hosted the last of the summits.

The summits were started as a way of encouraging residents to participate in discussions about the metro’s application of service delivery to them.
Gungubele and Mekgwe met with Ekurhuleni residents to hear their input on the service delivery they get and what their grievances are.
Mekgwe said Ekurhuleni is a central player in the economic triangle, giving it a high rate of immigration which places pressure on services such as clinics, education and infrastructure.
“Job opportunities in Ekurhuleni puts pressure on people to live close to areas of employment, hence the huge number of informal settlements,” she said.
She added that the metro has a total of 120 informal settlements which are largely congested.
Emphasis was put on the fact that there are efforts to do away with 45 informal settlements across the metro and provide access to services to informal settlements on privately owned land and minimise evictions on these properties.
She does acknowledge that there is a need for alternative land for relocation.
Gungubele identified unemployment as one of the main socio-economic challenges, with an unemployment rate of 28.8% in the city, as well as food, security and underdevelopment.
To try and change this, the metro will put into place the Job Creation Project Management Office to specifically deal with unemployment.
He said the metro has, despite the challenges, built 15 138 houses and serviced 18 954 stands. “These achievements were done between 2009 and 2013,” he said. He also highlighted that 15 076 title deeds were handed over to beneficiaries and 16 informal settlements were formalised where up to 12 000 residents benefited.
Mekgwe emphasised that, despite the achievements in Gauteng, on eradicating services backlog, some focus areas require major upgrading and the provision of new infrastructure, which the metro has put focus on fixing.
