January 16, 2004
By Bontle Moeng
THE mayoral team left the Braamfontein Council Chambers on a road show of the Midrand region at 7am promptly and from the start it was clear it was going to be a very long day.
Such road shows are a common feature of Johannesburg Executive Mayor Amos Masondo's tenure, allowing mayoral committee members and city officials to keep in touch with the city's residents.
Mayor joins the Diepsloot school choir in song
On Thursday 15 January Masondo and his team tackled Region 1 and Region 2, the sprawling Midrand area to the north east of the city.
Some 20 years ago Midrand was an agricultural zone, with smallholdings and farmlands. Now it boasts a wide range of economic and residential developments: from farms to luxurious residential estates, from sprawling informal settlements to established townships; with informal spaza shops to the shopping malls of Fourways. The two regions, which border on Tshwane, include suburbs like Vorna Valley and Country View, as well as the informal settlements of Diepsloot and Ivory Park.
First stop for the mayor and his party - Diepsloot. The sprawling settlement is home to 85 000 people, mostly relocated from Alexandra township. Originally established as a transit camp, the settlement has taken on a more formal, and permanent, structure.
To help residents, Council last year allocated R9-million, from the Alexandra Renewal Project, for the installation of piped water supplies and the construction of communal toilets with water borne sewerage. This was just one of the projects the mayor wanted to see at first hand.
Other developments in Diepsloot included: the building or more than 5 000 RDP houses; the Oliver Tambo Clinic, which sees 6 000 patients a month; the R3-million Diepsloot sports facility; the Diepsloot taxi rank; and the metro police and Emergency Management Service precinct.
Masondo and his team stopped for breakfast at the Diepsloot Youth Centre, where regional director, Greg Daniels, got the opportunity to provide an overview of the district. "Regional achievements include personal health, environmental health, libraries and social services," he said.
He added that the major challenge facing Region 1 was unemployment. "The informal settlements are located far away from the economic nodes and there's no public transport. Diepsloot itself has no potential job opportunities due to its location."
However, upgrading of the region continued apace, he added. The Gauteng provincial government had spent almost R6-million in the area, developing a youth centre and library.
After breakfast it was on to Diepsloot Combined School, constructed from several large containers. A welcoming committee was ready for Mayor Masondo, with the school choir greeting him in song.
School principal Veronica Kgabo said: "The school has 34 teachers for 1 400 pupils and previously there were no library facilities in our area." The regional library department approached the Gauteng Provincial Library Services for help. Two old buses were donated and filled with 14 000 books supplied by charities from the US, the UK and the Netherlands.
Before leaving, Masondo praised the school for its dedication and handed over a box of new books to the school principal.
The road show continued on to Region 2, which includes Ivory Park. This settlement was also established, in 1990, as a transit camp and, like Diepsloot, continued to expand as people moved in from Thembisa and Alexandra in search of land.
Here the mayor officially opened the R1.35-million Midrand West Clinic, situated in Halfway Gardens. Masondo unveiled a small plaque on the clinic's wall, marking the opening. He then walked around the facility, inspecting the consultation rooms and waiting room and talking to members of the clinic's staff.
From Halfway Gardens the mayoral team moved on to the Ebony Park Kaalfontein Clinic, which was constructed at a cost of R1. 45-million from funds allocated by the City of Johannesburg. Here too a plaque was unveiled.
Councillor Prema Naidoo, mayoral committee member responsible for health, stressed that patients needed to have access to the best health services available. "I encourage the community to take note about safe sex. It is important to know our status so we can act in a responsible manner," he said.
Mayor Masondo added: "For primary health facilities to be socially relevant, they must be accessible and affordable." The mayor spoke out against vandalism, pointing out how Soweto's Senaone Clinic had been stripped, until it was bare. "It is important to keep this clinic in place, look after it and protect it," Masondo said.
Also on the itinerary was the Kaalfontein housing development, a joint initiative between the Johannesburg City Council, the Gauteng provincial government and a local developer. So far 3 000 houses have been completed and yesterday Masondo, together with mayoral committee member Strike Ralegoma, handed over the title deeds of the some of the houses to the residents.
Then it was off to the Lord Khanyile Multi Purpose Centre, a project started with a R1-million grant from the provincial Vusani Amadoloba fund. The second phase of the development was funded by the then Kyalami Metropolitan Council. It was finally completed thanks to funding from the City of Johannesburg. The precinct has a youth centre, the Ubuntu Centre for the aged, a resource centre, a revenue pay point, the Ivory Park Library, and a community hall.
Outside the Lord Khanyile Multi Purpose Centre was an exhibition of the Imbawula Project, established by Region 2's environmental health section. This project aims to address the problem of air pollution caused by smoke from coal fires.
The mayor then toured the Kopanong Bakery, a job creation project initiated and facilitated by the regional social services along with the Agricultural Research Council, Snowflake and Anchor Yeast. Eight people are now employed at the facility, which bakes and sells bread, vetkoeks and scones to the community on a daily basis.
The final stop of the daylong road show was the Masisizane Woman's Housing Cooperative in Ivory Park. The cooperative, formed in 1999, has 4 000 members who participate in a saving scheme. According to Simon Moloko, regional manager for housing, the cooperative was founded by the late Annah Mofokeng. "It started as a saving scheme but later went on to become a construction cooperative that has managed to build 300 houses with their own funds. It only takes them one and half days to complete a house."
Thembi Nkambule, who now heads the Masisizane Woman's Housing Cooperative, explained to the mayoral group how they had managed to complete 49 houses through a subsidy programme.
At the end of the day City Manager Pascal Moloi held an informal meeting with representatives of the local chamber of commerce at Gallagher Estate. During this meeting Moloi outlined Johannesburg's developmental framework and discussed problems facing the city.
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