May 28, 2003
By Bongani Majola
FORMED by the City of Johannesburg in 2001, the Johannesburg Development Agency was mandated to stimulate and support economic development via area-based initiatives, notably the Newtown Cultural Precinct and Constitution Hill.
JDA has been allocated R60 million for capital expenditure in the 2003/2004 capital budget, to continue in its efforts to regenerate decaying areas of the city.
Prominent in the agency's budgetary allocations for 2003/04 are funds for Braamfontein Regeneration, which has been allocated an amount of R15 million, while R3 million will go towards the Greater Ellis Park project. The Kliptown project will get R15 million, the Medical Precinct R2 million and the Drill Hall project has been allocated R5 million.
Constitution Hill has been allocated R15 million, while CBD Development and Regeneration receives R3 million and the Main Street project, R2 million.
To date, JDA has implemented and managed area-based development projects on time and within budget. The agency has also cooperated with both the provincial and national government on major developments such as the Newtown Cultural Precinct and the Nelson Mandela Bridge - linking central Johannesburg to Braamfontein and due to open on 20 July.
Plans are afoot to improve JDA's customer responsiveness to increase the rating of customer satisfaction achieved in the annual customer satisfaction survey. JDA has targeted 74 hours as the average time for the complete resolution of customer queries and has resolved 95% of all the complaints received in the previous financial year.
The agency plans complete fiscal discipline, setting at least 75% as its target in actual capital expenditure of this week's budget. Other than the budget funding from its shareholder, the City of Johannesburg, the JDA generates income from project management fees paid by the province and private businesses involved in some of its regeneration schemes as well as interest income from funds held in trust for projects.
However, most of the funding is used to cover operational costs such as staff salaries and operational overheads as well as professional fees incurred at the formulation stages of City-funded projects.
