April 13, 2006
By Anish Abraham
JOBURG'S work in revamping its inner city has attracted the attention of its northern neighbour, Tshwane, which sent a delegation to observe how things are being done.
A 20-strong delegation from the Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality, representing departments varying from health and environment to public transport, municipal courts, policing, marketing, informal trading and inner city management, were hosted by the Johannesburg Innovation and Knowledge Exchange (Jike) at the Metropolitan Centre in Braamfontein on 12 April.
"Tshwane also wants to engage in urban renewal programmes and it finds Joburg to be a good example to learn from," said Harvey Phalatse, a knowledge exchange specialist at Jike.
Opening the meeting, Sibongile Mazibuko, Joburg's chief operating officer, said the biggest challenge facing cities after the HIV/Aids pandemic was rapid urbanisation.
"Africa is only 33 percent urbanised. If we have a problem now, it will only become worse over time - we only have to look at cities in Brazil or China."
Mazibuko said that it was up to local governments to solve these problems, as it was their function to provide people with basic services and relevant infrastructure.
She was enthusiastic about the approach from Tshwane, saying the relationship between the two metros had to be developed into a meaningful two-way partnership of sharing ideas and experiences. There was a need for local governments to document how they had successfully dealt with certain problems so those solutions could be shared with others.
Johannesburg also had plenty to learn from Tshwane, especially in areas of inner city refuse management, informal trader management and improving relationships with local business. "But I can say we have really tried to change Johannesburg around," Mazibuko concluded.
Hlula Msimang, the chief of the Tshwane Metropolitan Police Department, said there was a great need for partnerships between the province's metros. A holistic approach was necessary so that criminals were not simply chased from one city to another geographical area.
"As a leading capital city, we are carrying the torch on behalf of the African continent, thus there is a great need to regenerate our inner city. We host the president, who has also expressed concern over the state of the Pretoria inner city," he said.
Msimang said one regularly heard of the work being done in the Johannesburg inner city and Tshwane representatives were attending the meeting to learn and to share experiences.
Yakoob Makda, the director of Region 8, was on hand to give the guests a better understanding of the workings of the inner city. The initial drive to clean up the derelict downtown was in 2001, with a plan called Jozi Upgrade.
He said problems Joburg then faced included crime and grime, lack of by-law enforcement, unmanaged informal trading, taxi management concerns, decaying buildings, inadequate credit control, social problems and negative perceptions.
However, factors strongly in favour of the inner city were that it was the country's main economic generator, was a large employment centre, had a central location, was a transport hub, had good infrastructure, was a retail and cultural centre, and - not least - it was the capital of Gauteng. The key factor was that inner city regeneration was made a priority by Executive Mayor Amos Masondo.
Makda said the biggest challenge was to create a multi-disciplinary task force, consisting of members of the various City departments, Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department, the South African Police Service and, where applicable, the Department of Home Affairs and the South African National Defence Force.
Much work was being done to assist with the problem of homeless people in the inner city, such as the creation of transitional shelters like the converted Hotel Europa.
In close partnership with local investors and after regular meetings, steady progress was being made in tackling the problems in the inner city, one block at a time. To date, Region 8 had collected information on more than 6 000 inner city buildings through a block-by-block survey for its database.
Despite the work done, the inner city still faced problems of slumlords, homeless people, drugs, prostitution, illegal immigrants and the provision of low cost housing.
The guests were especially interested in the City's Better Buildings Programme, which is managed by Geoff Mendelowitz from the Johannesburg Property Company.
As part of the programme, buildings that are in a poor condition or owe excessive amounts to the City in rates and service fees can have those amounts written down in exchange for an Obligations Agreement.
In return for having their debt written down, building owners have to refurbish their buildings and ensure that rates and services charges are paid from then on.
"Presently we have 146 buildings in the Better Buildings Programme. We have written off R250-million, while we expect R350-million to be reinvested into those buildings. In addition, we are looking at R6,5-million being collected per month in rates and service charges," Mendelowitz said.
Turning to informal trading, Kgosi Ramagopa, the chief executive of the Metropolitan Trading Company, spoke of how the City decided to create formal malls, which were facilities for taxi ranks and markets.
There are about 18 000 informal traders in Johannesburg, most of whom ply their trade in the inner city. About 150 000 commuters and 3 000 taxis use the Metro Mall, the company's flagship rank, daily.
Ramagopa said the City had decided to deal with the problem of non-payment for facilities by taxi associations by introducing a cab fee for taxis, which would be included in their registration permits.
"This process will be managed by the metro police and we hope to have it in place by September," he said.
A contributing factor to the revival of the inner city has also been the creation of City Improvement Districts (CIDs), zoned areas where property owners pay a levy to provide supplementary services to those provided by the City. Even though they are driven mainly by private property owners, good relations are necessary with the City, which has one representative on the board of every CID.
"They take the risk out of investing in an area," said Anne Steffny of the Central Johannesburg Partnership. "CIDs like Braamfontein have constantly raised the bar. However, this does not happen over night - it was a three-year process."
Two types of districts that can be legislated are improvement districts, where property owners want to deal with issues of crime, grime and decay, and management districts, where property owners want to increase the attractiveness of an area through branding, marketing, public art, landscaping and so on.
However, the meeting heard that the biggest obstacle to bringing about change in the inner city was the negative perceptions held by people.
"Previously, most coverage of the inner city was overwhelmingly negative," said Shaun O'Shea, Region 8's manager for communications and marketing. "We now need to promote the inner city as a place to live, work, play, invest in and visit as a tourist."
This was being achieved through mass media relations, extended media coverage, radio and television interviews, advertising, multimedia, publications and holding events such as the New Year's Carnival.
"Our target audience is business, residents, investors and, most importantly, our internal staff, who are our biggest ambassadors," he said.
The Tshwane delegation was also taken on a bus tour of the inner city to see some of what had been spoken about at the morning meeting.
Before departing, Makda proposed the creation of a Metropolitan Inner Cities Association. "Though groupings like the South African Local Government Association can assist in many areas, inner cities face unique challenges that require unique solutions," he concluded.
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