​The City of Johannesburg hosted its first physical IDP, Budget and tariffs consultation meeting with the community of Soweto at the Orlando Communal Hall on Wednesday afternoon, 14 April 2021.

Due to Covid-19 Regulations, the City decided to conduct this year’s consultations virtually, physically and using the hybrid model.

Residents in attendance were reminded that no more than 200 people are allowed in the venue in line with the regulations.

Present at the meeting was the Speaker of Council, Cllr Nonceba Molwele, the Executive Mayor, Cllr Geoffrey Makhubo, ​the MMC for Environment Infrastructure and Service, Cllr Mpho Moerane, Chairperson of EISD Section 79 Committee, Cllr Matshidiso Mfikoe and the Regional Director, Ms. Salome Ngobese.

In the opening remarks, the programme director for the day, Cllr Molwele, encouraged residents to engage robustly in the discussions towards enhancing the draft IDP and Budget as well as proposed tariffs. She emphasised that the meeting is for the community to engage meaningfully with their government and influence development decisions.

The MMC deployed to Region D, Cllr Moerane, gave an overview of the progress and challenges in the region as well as high level development plans for the entire City of Johannesburg.

He stressed that Region D is the most important region in the City of Johannesburg given the size of the population and the number of wards. As such, it is critical that residents of Region D make inputs to the City’s plans to ensure that the City realises its long-term vision of being a “world-class African City”.

The Regional Director, Ngobese, highlighted housing, by-law enforcement, waste management infrastructure rollout, stormwater upgrade, road resurfacing programme, youth empowerment as well as stakeholders engagement and communication.

The upgrading of informal settlements, allocation of title deeds, hostels maintenance, flats maintenance and transfer to owners were critical interventions. Potholes are a challenge in most parts of the region, as such the City has allocated a budget to patch the potholes. There is also a resurfacing programme that is being rolled out.

Some of the key issues raised by the community are safety and illegal dumping. One community member made a passionate plea to the City’s leadership for the CCTV cameras to be installed in Soweto to enhance existing efforts to deal with crime in the township.

In response to this plea, the Member of the Mayoral Committee responsible for Public Safety, Cllr Mally Mokoena, indicated that a report will be tabled to Council for the rollout of CCTV cameras throughout the City as part of the implementation of the Integrated Intelligence Operation Centre (IIOC).  The announcement was greeted with huge applause from the community.

Another resident said illegal dumping is happening with impunity in some parts of the township and asked the City to come up with a strategy to curb this challenge.

In response to this challenge, the Chairperson of the EISD Section 79 portfolio committee, Cllr Mofikoe, indicated that the City is rolling out programmes to improve waste management in the City of Johannesburg such as separation at source. This encourages residents to separate waste from their home so that the City can reduce the amount of waste that goes to the landfill sites.

She said that there has to be a conversation with the community to explore ways to turn some of the waste generated as a source of income for community members, including the youth.