IMTT heeds the President's call to engage the shutdown committee on the Alexandra Renewal Programme interventions

18 April 2019

The Inter-Ministerial Task Team on Service Delivery met with the Alexandra Total Shutdown Committee, in Alexander Stadium on Wednesday evening, following the visit of the President of the Republic to Alexandra on 11 April 2019 and the subsequent directive by the President for the inter-Ministerial Task Team (IMTT) to work with the provincial and local government to resolve issues raised by residents of Alexandra.

The IMTT on Service Delivery exists as a structure reporting to Cabinet focusing on alignment, coordination and integration of programmes across different spheres and departments of government to achieve effective implementation and is attending to the work assigned by the President.

The President directed that the inter-ministerial task team must within one week, meet with the Alexandra Total Shutdown Committee and ensure the concerns raised by the community are addressed. 

The IMTT comprises various Ministries; such as the Ministers and Deputy Ministers of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation, Environmental Affairs, Police, Small Business Development, Home Affairs, Police as well as Rural Development and Land Reform, amongst others. 

The provincial government represented by the Premier and MECs was invited to give the IMTT an account of their meeting with the Alexandra Community following the visit to Alexandra by the Gauteng Premier, after giving a similar briefing to the President last week. 

The IMTT gave an opportunity to the Alexandra Total Shutdown committee to Table its memorandum of grievances and challenges faced by the community and its leaders.  

The Shutdown Committee presented a detailed account of service delivery challenges and the long term issues of reviving the town of Alexander.  The meeting was conducted in a calm, cordial and respectful manner characterized by frankness. 

Amongst the issues raised were the following:

- Unresolved land issues and release of title deeds to unlock future development and court orders prohibiting building on the land

- High demand for housing, illegal occupation of houses and other premises for unscrupulous money making scheme.

- Lack of refuse removal and illegal dumping of litter resulting in intolerable stench and unhygienic conditions.

- Poorly kept parks, cemeteries and overgrown vegetation on the side of the roads.

- Poor service delivery including challenges of sewerage spillage into streets or deliberately diverted into living areas, illegal connection of water, electricity and dangerous electric connections.

- Proliferation of illegal shacks and other structures in contravention of bylaws and failure of city officials to enforce bylaws.Failure to remove illegal structures and the mushrooming of shacks located under high voltage lines, river banks and flood plains, school premises and unused empty old factories.

- High crime rate and proliferation of large illegal weapons used in robbery and murder, making Alex too dangerous to raise families.

- Rapid increase in illegal and undocumented immigrants associated with crime and untraceable to law enforcement agents.

- Need for economic upliftment and investment promotion for income generation and eradication of poverty unemployment and inequality.

After brief engagements the Alexandra Total Shutdown Committee undertook to continue to temporarily suspend the Shutdown to allow the Presidential interventions space to take effect. It was agreed that the Committee will receive a report back next week after the proposed intergovernmental meeting.   

The IMTT sat and deliberated on the submissions by the Shutdown Committee and concluded that all the concerns and grievances they raised are genuine and are deserving of urgent attention. 

The IMTT therefore directed that the City of Johannesburg be urged to urgently attend to the serious issues of service delivery falling under the responsibility of the municipality including sewerage spillage, illegal water and electricity connections, refuse removal, cutting of grass and overgrown vegetation, clearing of cemeteries and others.

The City of Johannesburg is further urged to give urgent attention to the removal of illegal structures and halt the mushrooming of shacks and land invasion in line with the city bylaws using existing capacity.

The IMTT urges the provincial government to take steps to reinforce the work of the City to ensure that all the above is implemented to enhance service delivery.

The IMTT has directed that the Ministry of Police visit Alexandra police stations and work with the Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) and other Justice, Crime Prevention and Security cluster to enforce crime prevention measures with immediate effect.

The IMTT encouraged all departments and spheres of government to undertake their own sectoral work and participate in the preparation for the Intergovernmental meeting that will be held on 24 April including the Gauteng province and the City of Johannesburg. The IMTT urged all departments to prepare inputs, proposals and plans for the Intergovernmental meeting to implement solutions on service delivery in Alexandra for consideration in the next meeting.

All this must augment the work done by the IMTT Technical team led by Directors-General which includes provincial and municipal officials, which is already at work in preparation for a Comprehensive plan for Renewal of Alexandra. It is expected that a new plan will be discussed for the Renewal of Alexandra, aligned with the Statement of Intent signed in June 2016 and other development work already done in Alex. 

“It is critical for all spheres of government to cooperate and work in an integrated manner to promote efficient service delivery and move forward guided by our integrated urban development framework (IUDF) that will obliterate past apartheid spatial planning,” said the Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister, Dr Zweli Mkhize.  

Issued by Musa Zondi on behalf of Ministry of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, 18 April 2019