The City and Region F residents pondered over solutions during their virtual Community Based Planning (CBP) on Tuesday evening, 2 March 2021.
Region F lies in the heart of the City, is densely populated, has old infrastructure and as a result faces immense and unique challenges.
Officially opening the online session, the MMC for Housing, Cllr Mlungisi Mabaso impressed upon the residents and stakeholders to always be part of the City’s planning process.
“We must always be aware that CBP is citizen-focused and empowering. The process builds on the strengths and opportunities of communities, areas and not only addressing problems,” said MMC Mabaso, who reminded the participants that community participation is both constitutional and legislative right in the country.
The meeting, which attracted just under 100 residents and stakeholders, was held online due to Covid-19 restrictions, was convened for the clustered wards that included wards 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67 and 118. The City’s Earl Stoles laid bare the many challenges the region faced. These challenges include the increase in population, rapid generation of waste, illegal dumping, lack of public toilets, mushrooming of shacks and informal accommodation, dilapidated and abandoned private business and residential properties, traffic congestion to illegal car washing.
Many stakeholders complained about the high level of lawlessness and crumbling infrastructure in the region has led to many businesses either relocating or shutting down.
Sandra Queiroz complained about the increase in the number of hijacked building. “Buildings are being illegally occupied. [As the City] you have to look at other pressing things other than only building of libraries.”
Zanele Ndlovu from Ward 64 called on the City to come up with urgent plans to address the issue of unemployment, particularly for women who live in the inner city. “A lot of gender based violence is due to women being unemployment. If we could have a programme for women to be employed that would assist.”
Andrew Barker called on the City to work closely with the willing private sector to solve the challenges. “The problems lie with the lack of enforcement of the by-laws, which make the inner-city unattractive to investors. The private sector wants to partner with the City.”
Stoles said the region was proposing a number of ambitious and practical programmes to aggressively respond to the challenges. These include the comprehensive infrastructure repair and preventative maintenance plan which include war on potholes, water leaks and sewer repairs, preventative maintenance amongst others.
Others include waste management and environmental protection, the Kleena Joburg campaign, litter picking, clearing illegal dumping and grass cutting. There is also By-law Enforcement Programme that should include the Joburg 10+ (deploying 10 officers in each ward), visible policing in public spaces, anti-dumping enforcement, and infrastructure protection among many.
Stoles said that the region has a number of forums that are aimed at strengthening the existing partnerships like the Inner Jozi Safety and Safety Forum, Regional Visible Service Delivery Forum, Inner City Partnership Forum, Region F Multi-disciplinary Operations Planning Meeting, Open Days among others and that bode well for development.
Written by Nkosana Lekotjolo