An Adjustment Budget for Johannesburg’s Forgotten People
23 February 2017
When our coalition government walked into office on 23 August 2016, it faced many challenges.
Possibly the most difficult of these, was inheriting a budget from the previous administration, approved just 7 weeks before the voters of our City delivered their demand for change.
Our new administration has been expected to deliver immediate change while operating off a budget that represents the kind of ‘Business As Usual’ that the residents of our City unceremoniously dumped on 3 August 2016.
The legislative framework that governs local government is not sympathetic to our situation.
As many of you know, the Adjustment Budget process does not afford us to make substantial changes to the City’s budget. However, as we stand here today, a small but very real sense of the promise of change is beginning to emerge.
The change of which I speak is a fundamental change in the way government works; a fundamental change demanded by voters.
In the past, this City served the politically connect few at the expense of the majority of our people.
These were the Forgotten People.
You see they didn’t have the right membership cards or the right connections.
They are the people who reported service delivery issues into the black whole of bureaucracy.
They are the people who remain no clearer now than they were in 1996 about when they may receive a house. They are the people who live in informal settlements without basic services.
This administration is going to focus on these forgotten people.
We will dedicate this term of office to them, and in the process, our adjustment budget tabled here today is the start of remembering the forgotten people.
In this respect I am pleased to present to you, some of the achievements made in this adjustment budget:
Housing
You will all recall our discussions here following the floods in Setjwetla last year. You will all recall our collective mourning for the family of Everitte Chauke who was washed away in the floods.
I am pleased to announce that this adjustment budget allocates R1 million for a study into how we can protect the people located along the Jukskei River Banks in Setjwetla.
There are promising indications that short-term protection can be offered to these people by managing the flow of the river. If this study affirms the prospects of success, we can plan for this project in the 2017/18 Financial Year.
However, there is no doubt that a long-lasting solution has to be making substantial inroads into our housing backlog.
we came into office, I announced a 10 point plan that spoke to the issue of 3100 incomplete housing units in the City.
These stood empty, in most cases, due to failures by the City to provide services to these projects.
I am pleased to announce to Council that we will complete 1841 of these Housing Units in this financial year. We will make use of a National Grant to fund R546 million for the purpose of electrifying some of these incomplete Housing Units.
An additional R41 million has been allocated to the project to electrify various informal settlementsincluding: Plot 8 Lindhaven, Kliptown Ext11, Princess Plot 61, Freedom Charter Square, Ruimsig Portion 77.
Fellow Councillors, as government, it is crucial that we do all we can to protect the most vulnerable members of our society. Our role is not to simply provide services but it is also to advance the dignity of our people.
Homelessness robs many of our residents of that dignity.
This adjustment budget has made an allocation of R2 million for the construction of homeless shelters in various areas so that we can finally begin addressing this challenge head-on.
Safe and connected communities
Creating safe and connected communities throughout the City is one of the key objectives of this administration.
To that aim, we have allocated R31 million to JMPD for the recruitment of a further 1500 JMPD Officers. This will be a major breakthrough in the City’s efforts to combat crime, enforce by-laws and manage traffic congestion.
Further to this, a specialised JMPD unit is to be set up to address the issue of traffic light failure in our City. This unit will operate as a rapid response team to downed traffic lights in order to provide relief to our residents while the broader issue of traffic light repairs is being addressed.
On this particular point of traffic lights, I can inform Council that this adjustment budget will initiate, for the first time, the ‘No Join’ Policy for Johannesburg Road Agency (JRA) in respect of traffic lights.
Up until now, the City has addressed issues of downed traffic lights by simply joining cables in the event of an electrical fault. Each ‘join’ in the cabling of a traffic light is an electrical weakness in the circuit that makes it vulnerable to rain, electrical surges and lightening.
We have allocated R6 million to replace cabling in key traffic intersections to initiate the ‘No Join’ Policy which will be expanded upon in the 2017/18 Financial Year.
With JRA I am pleased to announce that the adjustment budget before you proposes to declare war on pot holes in our City. We have allocated R60 million for JRA to procure the requisite material for pothole repairs and R28 million in salaries to provide the requisite capacity behind this operation.
As a part of addressing challenges experienced by residents using public transport, we have allocated a furtherR51 million for the purchase of additional busses for Metro Bus, with a further R5 million for the refurbishment of our current fleet.
In addition to this, we have further allocated R14,3 million for the Intermodal Transport Facility in the Inner City.
This is designed to improve the efficiency of public transport and the experience of commuters using bus, rail and taxis on a daily basis.
We have initiated a program of tarring roads in impoverished areas which have had to live 23 years into democracy with gravel roads. These upgrades will take place in Doornkop, Lawley, Mayibuye, Tshepisong, Protea South and Ivory Park.
Healthcare
On 31 October 2016, I launched a pilot of extended hours at Princess Clinic. This came from an identified need for extended operating hours in communities where the demand for clinic services was high.
I have subsequently received reports that the extended hours are producing enormous benefit to the community of Princess. Recently the lives of two infants have been saved by the ability to receive primary healthcare after hours.
I am pleased to announce, that with our adjustment budget and at a cost of R4,3 million, we will extend the operating hours of 5 further clinics.
The following 2 clinics will operate on weekdays from 7am to 10pm and open on Saturdays, Sundays and Public Holidays from 7:30am to 1:30pm:
Freedom Park Clinic; and
Hikhensile.
Further to this, the following 3 clinics will operate from 7am to 7pm on weekdays and will be open on Saturdays, Sundays and Public Holidays from 7:30am to 1:30pm:
Randburg Clinic;
Zandspruit; and
Albert Street Clinic in the Inner City.
Through this adjustment budget, we have also set ourselves the task of improving the infrastructure of some of our City clinics. These clinics are located in Florida, Noordgesig and Orchards.
This process also includes an increase afforded to the Langlaagte Pharmacy Distribution facility to improve the efficiencies of the distribution of medicines to all our clinics.
Inner City Renewal
Our vision has always been that the Inner City can truly be something it has never been before – an inclusive, modern and diverse heart-beat of Johannesburg.
I am pleased to present to you a plan to achieve this through increased funding to Johannesburg Social Housing Company (JOSHCO) amounting to R 219 million.
This increase will be for the purpose of purchasing buildings that will be refurbished within the Inner City. These building are to be converted into low cost rental stock that will house 1164 families.
For too long parts of Johannesburg, particularly the inner City, have been associated with grime. This will become a thing of the past.
We have allocated an additional R49,2 million to Pikitup in a bid to clean up our City. This is through additional cleaning shifts in the Inner City and within our informal settlements as well.
Growing the City’s Economy
There is no doubt that one of the key elements for reversing unemployment within the City relates to our ability to make it easier to set up businesses.
We have identified 20 key performance standards in this respect. These standards involve various subjects ranging from building plan approvals to rezoning applications, and installations of new meters to clearance certificates.
I am pleased to announce that this adjustment budget has allocated an additional R3,6 million to Development Planning to capacitate the units that address these key performance areas.
Further capacity is planned for the 2017/18 Financial Year.
An additional amount of R5 million has also been allocated to the completion of the Shared Industrial Production Facility in Alexandra. This facility will be a fully serviced shared production facility for Alexandra based SMMEs operating in the informal manufacturing sector.
Good governance and the fight against corruption
In this City, corruption is public enemy number one.
The continued fight against corruption will receive an amount of R38 million for the capacitation of the Anti-Corruption Unit led by General Shadrack Sibiya.
The work that this team has produced without the required capacity is quite astonishing. It boggles the mind to think what they will achieve when fully capacitated.
We have also allocated R5 million for the completion of the City’s Skills Audit. This is an imperative for this administration because we cannot have a City that performs for its residents if the wrong people are in the wrong position for the wrong reasons.
Conclusion
I believe, in the coming weeks, the forgotten people of our City will begin to see things where they have previously seen nothing.
They will start to see projects accelerating and progress taking shape. To the forgotten people of our City, I invite you to view these small changes that we can make within the adjustment budget as a sign of things to come.
I say to you, the days of being ignored, dismissed, pushed aside and forgotten have come to an end.
A new bright light of change, where there was previously only hopelessness and despair, has dawned on our City.
Issued by Tony Taverna-Turisan, Director of Communications, Office of the Executive Mayor, City of Johannesburg, 23 February 2017
