City of Joburg

The Golden Start marks the exciting beginning of the current five-year term of Mayor Mpho Phalatse

The City of Johannesburg is embarking on a new journey, a new start as it carves a path in a quest to fully become a world class African city.

After the Multi Party Government (MPG) which was put together and announced amid excitement in December, the coalition government under the leadership of Mayor Dr Mpho Phalatse plans to hit the ground running.

To guide its work, the city has what it calls a Golden Start which is a roadmap with timelines of what needs to be done to turn the city around. The goal is to make Johannesburg a better and safe place for citizens to live and business to thrive.

The Golden Start marks the exciting beginning of the current five-year term with a government that will bring about real change and restore hope and dignity to the lives of the people. The Golden Start plan which is contained in a document outlines what the multiparty government refers to as a compelling agenda which speaks to an impactful and effective project of service delivery.

The recently launched Golden Start will address key areas that are broken and need urgent fixing but also aims to achieve other goals in order to get the basics right. Phalatse and her team have interventions which will go a long way to restore hope and confidence of the people of Johannesburg, the country’s economic hub.

These interventions form part of the multiparty government’s broader commitments to the city’s residents, which have been formulated as the seven (7) Mayoral priorities. The priorities aim to address issues that include poor roads, power outages, water outages and a degraded living environment.

An ambitious target has been set with the newly put together government aiming to see drastic changes in the next six months.

Before the end of June, if everything goes according to plan, residents of Johannesburg will at last get a City administration that properly responds to calls, queries and even disputes.

The new government has pledged to improve communications and public relations. Residents will no longer dread having to reach out to the municipality to report some or other failure.

The new government has stated that it has already introduced a new programme to reduce cable thefts significantly.

Cable thefts are a significant cause of power outages which has become a big problem in the City of Johannesburg.

Reducing cable theft will immediately reduce the number of regular and problematic power outages.

The new administration views the impact of power failures so seriously that in June, it will host an Energy Indaba which seeks to find solutions that will guarantee energy supply security. She believes that the impact of power failure is not just the impact on households but it also poses a big risk on businesses which may easily collapse with much-needed jobs being lost in the process.

This will be a significant drawing together of all those in the energy space who can contribute towards coming up with solutions which could work for the City of Johannesburg. Those who will be invited will be a diverse congregation of role players, suppliers, innovators, entrepreneurs, and academics from the entire energy supply spectrum.

The idea is to free Johannesburg “from the curse of the Eskom monopoly,” and put the city on a path to explore with the possibilities of not solely relying on the country’s main power utility. Phalatse believes that where there is guaranteed certainty of energy supply, everybody wins.

She believes that the impact of power failure is not just the impact on households but it also poses a big risk on businesses which may easily collapse with much-needed jobs being lost in the process.

The new multipart government believes that for jobs to be created and for economic growth to happen, the city’s key role is the provision of services.

This would among other require input from all role players including the city’s employees who need to recommit themselves towards a customer centric service delivery value chain.

Among some of the key priorities is getting the streets in various CBDs much cleaner through the inclusion

of mechanization in the street sweeping. The city plans to reintroduce the community-assisted clean-ups known as A Re Sebetseng and a clamp down on illegal dumping.

The Golden Start is a pathway to getting basics right and creating a business-friendly city, a safe & secure city, a caring and smart city which is well-run city and inclusive.

By the end of June, performance should be improved to ensure that it is delivering at 50% of its current capacity.

Beyond June, the plan is to push to ensure that this plant operates at its optimal levels so that potholes become a thing of the past.

The bus lanes taken over by minibus taxis and private cars will be reinstated for use by public transport as envisaged.

The buses themselves will be more reliable through the Bus Refurbishment Programme which will increase the economic life of the fleet. By then R20m would have been spent on the Bus Refurbishment Programme.

Among other exciting projects is the Community Based Substance Abuse Program in Davidsonville which will be fully operational in the next few months.

There will also be 39 clinics providing Covid-19 vaccinations with space at 11 clinics being expanded as part of delivering the experience of a caring City.

Before the end of this financial year, the city plans to produce a plan to implement an environmental awareness programme for schools and targeted communities.

Through a partnership with civil society and the Johannesburg council, 10 000 trees will be planted within 20 weeks.

The management team in the department of Community Development have already committed to intensifying their support to communities through a “7 – 11 boots on the ground” programme. In terms of this programme, the department will deploy officials from 7 to 11am every day to public libraries and parks near you.

This is part of the plan to ensure that the improvement in service delivery is visible and evident.

The maintenance of traffic lights repairs will become more effective and efficient using UPS re-cabling, which is relatively cost-effective. This will ensure that traffic is largely free-flowing and the time spent on the city’s roads especially during peak hours getting reduced.

The multiparty government agrees that the state of Joburg’s road infrastructure network has deteriorated over the years to such an extent that many are riddled with potholes. This matter has also been prioritised.

Commitment has also been made that building plans needed to be approved within 5 days instead of the current 30 days. Beyond June, the city will aim to reduce this period even further.

The city plans to improve on police visibility and within the next two months there will be more JMPD officers with an additional 500 personnel being deployed in business nodes. In these areas residents should be able to see an officer every five minutes as the city pushed to address crime of any kind.

The revision of the City Safety Strategy will be initiated with the launch of an upgraded and an all-encompassing law enforcement programme known as Buya Mthetho.

The various City-owned agencies responsible for economic development will also be reviewed for performance.

The city also plans to host a Business Collaboration event around mid-May which will involve participants drawn from a number of sectors including tourism, financial and other services, manufacturing, and even unlikely sectors such as agriculture.

Within the next five months there will be an institutional review, organisational development and filling critical vacancies in the city.

There also a planned turnaround plans to improve the operations and performances of key entities such as Metrobus, Johannesburg Property Company (JPC), Metropolitan Trading Company (MTC) and Joburg Developing Agency(JDA).

The Golden Start to the new five year term aims among other to fix the city which is broken in an effort to help it restore its lost shine.