November 15, 2007
By Emily Visser
SOCIAL investments made by the City of Johannesburg in Soweto over the last few years are bearing fruit in unexpected ways. Since the Soweto Road Map project – tarring all gravel roads in the township - was completed in 2005, private investors have been streaming into the area.
What's more, Sowetan residents are taking greater pride in their immediate environment and dust-related diseases such as asthma have subsided substantially.
Executive Mayor Amos Masondo briefed a delegation from Makana municipality in Eastern Cape on one of the City's proudest endeavours. At his side was the City manager, Mavela Dlamini; the member of the mayoral committee for transportation, Rehana Moosajee; and key Johannesburg Roads Agency officials. The meeting took place at the Metro Centre in Braamfontein on 12 November.
Makana municipality is hoping to initiate a similar project in which roads in the six townships in Grahamstown will be tarred and upgraded. And judging from Johannesburg's experience, this may well result in boosting economic development and employment as well as improving overall quality of life for local residents in a lasting and profound manner, Makana's executive mayor, Phumelelo Kate, said.
Also of interest to the visitors was the Soweto Greening project as Makana has a similar programme on the go.
Makana is made up of the towns of Grahamstown, Alicedale, Riebeeck East, Sidbury and Salem and although small in comparison to Johannesburg, Kate said that in the province it was viewed as a strategic municipality.
"Economic leverage opportunities are brought by educational facilities [Rhodes University and a number of top schools are in the area] and the annual National Arts Festival."
Despite this, the municipality is poor and, with an approximate unemployment rate of 51 percent, it has to deal with a number of development challenges.
"We would like to forge forward with the formalisation of a working relationship with Johannesburg, helping us to put systems in place [for such a project]."
No more dust
The Soweto Road Map project was initiated by Masondo in July 2003 and took just two years to complete - six months ahead of schedule. During this time over 300 kilometres of dirt and gravel roads were tarred at a cost of R500-million and close to 5 000 people were employed, a large number from the local community.
The Johannesburg Roads Agency oversaw the project.
By July 2005 every one of the 27 townships that make up Soweto had tarred roads of the same or better quality as any other road in Johannesburg, complete with kerbing, storm-water drains and signage. Existing tarred roads were also upgraded to the same standards.
Masondo said that the road-tarring project illustrated in a very practical manner how the City's investments in poorer areas eventually led to private sector interest and development. He sited the Maponya Mall, which was recently developed by businessman Richard Maponya at a cost of R650-million as being a classic example.
"Roads infrastructure development is the lifeline of economic development." Other developments already under way or in the planning phase are the Baralink project, which includes major hospital and transport upgrades; the Soweto Empowerment Zone; Diepkloof hostels upgrade; Orlando eKhaya; Jabulani central business district; and Jabavu stadium, among others.
What is more, the programme has not gone unnoticed in the media. The Mail and Guardian, one of the country's leading weekly newspapers, recently acknowledged the role played by the roads agency in building the city by giving it an "investing in the future" award.
Driven by political will
Masondo said the project would not have been possible if left to officials. "We took a political decision not to do this work piecemeal and needed to be programmatic in our approach."
The Johannesburg Roads Agency, a City entity, was tasked with the project and divided Soweto into three blocks. Additional upgrades were added, such as paving and pedestrian walkways, and roads and bridges were widened.
"Business suddenly got very interested in coming into the area," Masondo said.
Dlamini was the managing director of the roads agency at the time and was closely involved with the project. He explained that tarring took place according to the age of the township.
He spoke about the political determination to see the project through to completion, and said that the strong involvement of the locals and a project management model in which design and construction took place at the same time, were also reasons for its success and speed.
A similar project was under way in Orange Farm, said Dudu Maseko, the present managing director of the agency. But while the Soweto project cost about R1-million a kilometre, Orange Farm carried bigger challenges.
"Working conditions are not the same, with cost per kilometre at R2-million and a shortage of materials as a result of 2010 forcing prices up."
Community interest
Maseko said the interaction with the community held some unusual surprises. About 14 families had to be relocated, among them a sangoma. The City had to slaughter two goats – at the old and the new premises - as part of the sangoma's relocation ceremony.
Makana was particularly interested in how to obtain funding for its own project. Johannesburg carried 70 percent of the total cost and all the start-up funding for the project. "As the project started to bear fruit, the national government became interested and invested 30 percent, but in the main the City was fortunate to be able to fund this," Masondo confirmed.
Maseko said Makana would be able to see all the project's documentation so that it could speed up its own process.
Johannesburg tries to reach out to municipalities the world over and has a number of international twin-city agreements and memoranda of agreement in place with cities like Birmingham and London in Britain, Windhoek in Namibia, and Val de Marne in France.
"But firstly, it [Johannesburg] aims to establish as many good relationships with municipalities in South Africa," Masondo confirmed in closing, urging Makana to "keep in touch".
The meeting was co-ordinated by the Johannesburg innovation and knowledge exchange (Jike) unit. Joburg was also recently visited by delegations from Nairobi in Kenya, and Hanoi in Vietnam.
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