December 22, 2006
By Anish Abraham
THIS year was an eventful one for Johannesburg. Amos Masondo was voted in for a second term as executive mayor and it was the tenth year of the new system of local government.
Reflecting on the first five years under Masondo, the City released a progress report, Reflecting on a Solid Foundation: Building Developmental Local Government. It discusses how the five former Metropolitan Local Councils merged to form a single metropolitan authority.
In Johannesburg, the ANC was the out-right winner in the municipal elections on 1 March, scooping 62 percent of the votes and 136 of the 217 seats. The Democratic Alliance took 59 seats, with 27 percent of the votes.
The elections meant new portfolio heads, departmental executive directors and city manager. During his five-year term as city manager, Pascal Moloi oversaw the establishment of Johannesburg as a unicity,
During his tenure Moloi ensured Johannesburg had the necessary structures, systems, policies and by-laws in place to keep the city on its growth path, making life easier for the incoming city manager.
Mavela Dlamini, the former managing director of the Johannesburg Roads Agency, became the new city manager following the official opening of the new council on 3 April.
Heritage, culture and entertainment
On a lighter note, 2006 was a busy year for Johannesburg residents, with a wide variety of heritage and entertainment activities having taken place. All the more special, it was
Joburg's 120th birthday.
Celebrations included a new plaque for the Raandjeslaagte Beacon, a display of vintage cars at the James Hall Transport Museum and an exhibition of photographs of early Johannesburg at Museum Africa. A party was held in Newtown in early October, during the second annual Newtown Diwali Festival.
February was a momentous month for Triomf, when the suburb's name reverted to the originalSophiatown, after more than 50 years. It was called Triomf, meaning triumph, in the 1960s by the apartheid government after it forcibly removed its residents.
One of Joburg's few freehold and multi-cultural areas, residents were evicted and buildings were razed in line with the Group Areas Act to make way for white working class families. In total, some 65 000 people were moved from the suburb.
A few historic buildings that escaped the bulldozers, including the Christ the King Anglican Church, where Archbishop Trevor Huddleston preached, Dr Alfred Bitini Xuma's house and St Joseph's Home for Orphans.
To commemorate the fallen heroes of 16 June 1976, four Soweto streets were renamed in their honour. A park next to where the famous march started in Jabavu, was named the June 16 Memorial Acre Park. The march was a protest against the use of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction.
Mayor Amos Masondo, with Essop Pahad, Minister in the Presidency and Barbara Greecy Gauteng MEC for the arts at the 30th anniversary of the June 16 uprisings
The four are Tsietsi Mashinini, an outspoken activist at the time; Lekgau Mthabathe, the headmaster of Morris Isaacson High School during that time; and Wycliff Tobo and Danny Kekana, staunch members of the Soweto Civic Organisation.
This will add to the list of sites named in honour of those who took part or were killed during the student uprising. In March, outgoing United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan, visited the Hector Pieterson Memorial, leaving a wreath in honour of the 12-year-old who was one of the first casualties of the uprising.
One experience that was definitely new to residents was the sight of the victorious stars of the local hit film, Tsotsi, parading through city streets after the film won an Oscar for best foreign language film. The cast and crew toured in an open-top Metrobus through Alexandra, Diepkloof, Pimville and Kliptown, showing off their prized gold statuette.
Tsotsi director Gavin Hood with the movie's stars Presley Chweneyagae and Terry Pheto arrive at Johannesburg International Airport
(Photo: Enoch Lehung, City of Johannesburg)
Much of the footage was shot in Soweto and Joburg held four free screenings in Alexandra, Diepsloot, Kliptown and Orange Farm. According to Moloi, promoting Joburg as a place for making movies forms part of a strategy to increase its exposure.
Musicians such as Snoop Dogg, Jay-z, Rihanna, Kanye West and Mattafix also performed in the city, as Joburg continued to attract a stream of entertainers hoping to make their mark on the South African market.
City restructuring
Following its election victory, the council
reduced the number of administrative regions and restructured City departments in a bid to improve efficiency and service delivery.
The number of administrative regions was reduced from 11 to seven, with new regulations putting regional directors in charge of service delivery by core departments and municipal-owned companies in each region. These regional directors are responsible for ensuring urban management, service delivery co-ordination and development planning in their regions.
Larger departments like development planning, transportation and environment were split into three, to focus better on its area of expertise. New departments, such as community development, are responsible for libraries, sports and recreation and arts, culture and heritage services.
There was also a split in the administrative and legislative components of the council, enabling councillors to perform a better oversight function on the work being carried out by the executive mayor and the mayoral committee.
The executive now has to account to the council, which has the power to debate any issue, enabling it to play a bigger role in the direction the City takes. Masondo remains the head of the executive, and the council speaker, Nkele Ntingane, is the head of the City's legislative component.
Guiding documents
To achieve its goal of becoming a world-class African city by 2030, Johannesburg has put together several documents that chart a way forward, highlighting priority focus areas and other City interventions.
A key long-term document is the Growth and Development Strategy (GDS), developed following extensive public consultation. This culminated in the Growth and Development Summit, held on 12 May at the Nasrec Expo Centre. Some 1 500 residents attended the summit, giving input during breakaway sessions.
The GDS encompasses other City strategies such as Joburg 2030, the City Safety Strategy, the Inner City Development Strategy, the Human Development Strategy, the Informal Trading Development Programme and the Spatial Development Framework.
Such a long-term strategy enables City leadership to identify and define the trends and dynamics that are shaping its future, so enabling it to be better prepared for the challenges ahead.
The GDS maintains Johannesburg should strive to become a world-class African city by focusing on areas such as economic development, housing, infrastructure and basic services, community development, environment, development planning and urban management, health and transport.
It also takes into account the Gauteng provincial government's plans to form a globally competitive city region, encompassing mainly the three metros (Joburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni), as well as parts of the West Rand district and the industrial areas in southern Gauteng.
Masondo delivered a record-breaking budget at the end of May, announcing that the City had earmarked R17,8-billion for operating expenditure and R3,2-billion for capital expenditure – a total of R21-billion.
It was also the first time that municipalities throughout the country had to submit five-year Integrated Development Plans, as opposed to the previous requirement of only one-year plans.
To make the most of its opportunities, the City is hoping to leverage off developments like the Gautrain, the Gauteng global city region, the Fifa 2010 Soccer World Cup and the national government's aim of achieving a 6 percent annual economic growth rate.
Major City projects include tarring of roads in Diepsloot, Orange Farm and Ivory Park; development of the North-South Strategic Public Transport Network from Regina Mundi to Parktown; increased rollout of Operation Gcin'amanzi; 2010 projects; and housing, among others.
In a push to overhaul infrastructure around the metro, the likes of City Power, Johannesburg Water and the Johannesburg Roads Agency will spend the bulk of R1,7-billion on new developments over the 2006-7 financial year.
Other notable capital expenditure will be through Pikitup, transportation, community development, housing and the Johannesburg Development Agency.
Since the financial crisis of the late 1990s, Johannesburg has made steady progress towards a culture of sound financial management, with the latest disclaimers from the auditor-general being attributed to "technical application of accounting standards" by Moloi. In all, eight of the 16 City-owned companies received unqualified reports from the auditor-general, Shauket Fakie.
Because of the complexity and scale of its structure and operations, Johannesburg has to adhere to three accounting standards, more than any other municipality in the country. They are Generally Accepted Municipal Accounting Practice, Generally Recognised Accounting Principles and International Accounting Standards.
Credit ratings agencies have taken note of the improvement in Joburg's finances, with a local and an international ratings agency giving it improved long and short-term ratings.
Johannesburg has also pioneered the use of municipal bonds under the new system of local government, using the proceeds to finance its sizable capital expenditure budget.
The City issued its fourth bond at the end of May, with the CoJ 04, a senior, unsecured, listed R1,2-billion bond that matures in June 2018. The bond was oversubscribed, with R6,5-billion in total being bid on it.
It forms part of the City's Domestic Medium Term Note Programme, which allows for bonds to the value of R6-billion to be issued until 2010, without new documentation having to be submitted before each individual bond issue.
The Metro is now preparing to launch a retail bond aimed solely at City residents. Whereas previous bonds were aimed at large corporate investors, the retail bond will be available in smaller denominations, encouraging individual investors to save, while contributing to the improvement of the City at the same time.
In a first for a South African municipality, Johannesburg held an Infrastructure Conference at the end of August to outline its various projects and programmes, with particular focus being placed on investment opportunities.
It was aimed at soliciting development and funding proposals from private investors so that the City can eradicate its R8-billion infrastructure backlog and form other possible private-public partnership ventures.
City developments
The inner city has come a long way since being abandoned by big business in favour of the north, with an intensive campaign by the Metro to return the central business district to its former glory.
It has been helped in this quest by the national government, which has proclaimed much of the inner city and dense inner suburbs as part of Johannesburg's Urban Development Zone tax incentive. Under the incentive, property owners who build or renovate property within the zone will be able to claim back cash from taxable income.
To date, investors taking advantage of this scheme have spent some R1,6-billion on redevelopment. The improvements have been mainly restricted to Braamfontein and the western parts of the central business district, and now the City is trying to lure more investors into the high-density flatlands, the eastern part of downtown Johannesburg and the greater Ellis Park precinct.
As the tax law has been amended to include sectional titleholders as beneficiaries of the incentive, City officials expect an increased uptake by smaller investors wanting to take part in the inner city's redevelopment.
Huge improvements have been made in the inner city over the years, and the Johannesburg Development Agency's Indicators of Progress in the Inner City 2006 report suggests that the City has "turned the corner".
It shows that vacancy levels in the inner city have gone down, while rental rates have climbed steadily. In addition, business confidence has risen, perhaps as a direct response to the improved environment and declining levels of crime.
During the presentation of that report, Masondo said an inner city summit was on the cards for April 2007, which will result in the formulation of an inner city charter. This document will guide further renewal in the area and will set out in clear and measurable terms the commitments of the City and the various role players.
Looking to the future, Joburg plans to establish a Business Process Outsourcing zone in the inner city, hoping to attract more call centre operators into the area. The location is ideal for operators, as they have easy access to the largest labour pool in the country – Soweto.
Joburg has also declared a war on grime in the inner city, with multi-disciplinary task forces taking to the streets of the inner city and surrounding high-rise residential areas in all out clean-up campaigns.
Apart from its commitment to making the inner city clean, green and safe, the City has also embarked on a programme to place various works of art in the public space. These vary from metal sculptures in Braamfontein and Main Street to murals at the foot of the Nelson Mandela Bridge in Newtown.
Similar initiatives to revitalise the Randburg central business district have also been put in place, and the City is starting to see some results there, the first being the establishment of a City Improvement District.
Upgrades are planned in four phases, ranging from improving road access and intersections, improving lighting and landscaping and redeveloping the market and taxi rank, to creating a pedestrian-friendly space in the area.
The Randburg Management District has also declared intensive cleaning up operations, targeting pavements, road islands and open spaces. The cleaning crews collected some 15 tons of waste in April alone.
Soweto
South Africa's largest township continues on its transformation away from being the ugly duckling of Johannesburg, with massive investments in the residential and retail sectors over the course of the year.
The largest of these developments is the R1-billion Orlando Ekhaya, which aims to redevelop the unused power station in Orlando into retail space, with bonded and social housing being built along the dam waterfront. The development will also include an entertainment centre capable of accommodating 20 000 people.
An artist's impression of Orlando Ekhaya, a R1-billion rand development in Soweto
The township has experienced a mall boom as retailers scramble to secure their slice of residents' disposable income, estimated by the City's Economic Development Unit to be R4,3-billion. Presently, some R3-billion of this disposable income is spent outside the township, something the developers hope to change.
A shopping centre and townhouse complex is also being built in Diepkloof as part of a R100-million mixed development, which will also include the Soweto branch of Hospice.
For businesses, the City is establishing the Soweto Empowerment Zone, a multi-purpose business centre for use by black economic empowerment companies. Through industry clustering and providing advisory and business training services, the City hopes the zone will become a successful incubator for small- and medium-sized business.
Making doing business easier is the fact that the City has tarred all the roads in Soweto, well ahead of the scheduled finish. It spent almost R500-million over three years, tarring 314 kilometres of streets in the 27 townships that make up Soweto.
Operation Gcin'amanzi, aimed at minimising water loss through replacing aged pipes and installing prepaid water meters in houses in the township, also attracted the attention of French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, who spent some time in Soweto viewing the project's progress.
The R450-million project was partly funded through a R320-million loan from a French development agency, Agence Francaise de Developpement. Unaccounted for water loss in Soweto was estimated at some seven billion litres, costing the City R20-million a month.
To ensure Soweto becomes just as aesthetically pleasing as Johannesburg's northern and western suburbs, it has launched the Greening Soweto Legacy Project to green and beautify the township ahead of the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup.
The project is receiving just over R7-million for the current financial year, with most of the money going towards planting some 5 000 street trees.
Transportation
A vital component to achieving a world-class city status is a world-class public transport system, which Joburg lacks. But it aims to change this through aggressively promoting public transport and improving related infrastructure.
In November, the council approved a proposal for the Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) system, a R2-billion project aimed at reducing traffic on the roads and improving transportation services. The plan is to have hundreds of buses transporting commuters on special demarcated bus lanes, mainly between townships to the south and the city centre and northern suburbs.
In line with the City's Strategic Public Transportation Network, key routes across the city will be altered so that there are specialised lanes only for use by public transport vehicles. This, along with a proposed Inner City Distribution System, is being seen as one of the few choices that can delivery an efficient public transport system ahead of the world cup in 2010.
The City's transport company, Metrobus, has seized the initiative by ordering 126 new buses, made by Mercedes Benz and Marco Polo, and has already taken delivery of 40 vehicles. Six of the buses are specially adapted to cater for people with disabilities.
A feasibility study conducted as part of the City's Integrated Transport Plan has also proposed an integrated ticketing and fare system for multi-modal transport. This means a resident can purchase one ticket and use it on any form of public transport, be it train, bus or minibus.
But there is one project that will definitely change how residents view public transport – the Gautrain Rapid Rail Link. Following numerous delays, the project is finally under way, with work being carried out simultaneously at Park Station, Rosebank, Sandton, Mushroom Farm and Marlboro.
And it's not too hard not to notice the work, especially with the northbound lane of Oxford Road in Rosebank closed to traffic for the next three years. Major work is expected to begin in Sandton in early 2007.
Once completed, the project backers hope it will revolutionise the way local residents view public transport. By including parking space for motorists and a feeder bus network for pedestrians, the train hopes to lure many people away from the roads.
Apart from the value added through having an efficient transport system, city planners expect more people to move to areas around the train's stations, to take advantage of the transport system.
2010
If the train just doesn't do it for residents, the one thing that will set everyone's hearts racing is the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup. Not only is South Africa the first African country to host the prestigious tournament, but Johannesburg is also the first city to host games at
two venues.
The historic Orlando Stadium was demolished and will be rebuilt as a training venue for the Fifa 2010 World Cup finals
Official matches have been allocated to Soccer City in Nasrec and Ellis Park in the inner city. In addition, nine smaller stadiums around the city have been earmarked as training venues.
As opposed to just redeveloping the stadiums that will host matches, the City is upgrading entire precincts in the Nasrec and Greater Ellis Park areas, hoping to use the world cup to accelerate gentrification.
To ensure the safety and security of locals and visitors, Johannesburg Metropolitan Police is to increase its ranks to 4 000 officers by 2010, by recruiting between 120 and 300 trainees a year. The force currently has 2 300 officers.
Joburg has shown its commitment to ensuring the City is ready for the soccer tournament, by creating a 2010 Unit to co-ordinate the efforts of various departments' world cup-related projects. The City's former chief operations officer, Sibongile Mazibuko, heads the unit.
As revealed in the GDS and the report by the Johannesburg Development Agency, Joburg is definitely on the right path, through spending on various types of infrastructure, engaging in projects around economic development and working towards a safer, cleaner and greener environment for its residents, and it is paying off.
Just ask Old Mutual and Coca-Cola – the financial services company is moving its South African headquarters from Cape Town to Johannesburg, while the global beverage maker is moving its Africa headquarters from London down south too.
To those two, this certainly is the City of Gold.
And things just keep getting better for the city's party people – this year's Joburg Carnival on New Year's Eve is to feature more than 1 500 performers from 10 countries around Africa, giving it a new flavour. It will also be broadcast live across Africa.
Now in its third year, the carnival is aimed at providing quality entertainment for residents of the inner city and its densely populated, high-rise inner city suburbs. This year the theme is "Nyakaza – Joburg unplugged".
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