Programme Director

MMC Sun

MMC Ngobeni

Councillor Loori Coogan

City Officials and Personnel

Just over a month ago myself and Members of the Mayoral Committee of the City of Johannesburg articulated A Golden Start for service delivery in Johannesburg - our immediate plan for the City until the end of the financial year in June. 

I am delighted to state that those words are fast becoming a reality through the hard work and dedication of people like MMC Sun and MMC Ngobeni, as well as the City’s Officials and Personnel.

Our immediate focus as the Multi-Party Government has been on getting the basics right, which means ensuring that the City’s administration is properly staffed, the systems work and that the residents receive quality customer service. 

But that does not mean that service delivery must come to a halt while we get our house in order. We must concurrently fix the City’s administration while repairing potholes and leaking pipes and keeping our communities clean.

While A Re Sebesteng /Let’s Work has previously been focused on communities working with the City to keep our parks and streets clean, we are today launching phase 1 of the campaign through region-by-region blitzes, which will see teams from City departments attending to their areas of focus. These teams will be seen across Johannesburg filling potholes, cutting grass, repairing broken traffic lights, fixing leaking pipes and cracking down on illegal dumping to name but a few operations. 

We are serious about building a well-run City.

In the coming weeks, we will be launching phase 2 of A Re Sebesteng through an awareness campaign targeted at schools and communities across the City. This will be the element of the campaign that will call upon the residents of Johannesburg to be active citizens by keeping their environment clean and introducing a culture of reducing, re-using, and recycling waste.

We are embarking on this campaign because, local government is collaborative work that requires all stakeholders – the City, residents, and business – to play their part because the reality is that it the City’s administration cannot build a well-run Johanesburg on its own.

We must therefore move away from the thinking and practice of government being distant from communities, which is why I have marching orders to the City’s Councillors stating that they must be in their communities all the time, and the residents must know who they are and how to reach them.

We must also disassociate with the view that says because I have paid my municipal bill I have done enough. And of course, we appreciate our residents who pay their rates on time because it is that revenue collected that helps us deliver services, but we also need residents to be our eyes and ears on the ground. When you see leaks or potholes call the City or your Councillor, don’t just complain about it. And our commitment to you is that we will get the work done., with a reasonable turnaround time.

As we build a well-run, clean, and safe City over the next 5-years, the Multi-Party Government will be engaging in a number of partnerships with the private sector. The makeup of these partnerships will find their genesis at the Jozi Energy Indaba in March, followed by a Business Collaboration Conference in June, the details of which will be announced soon.

Why are we so intent on working with the private sector? Because a well-run Johannesburg is a business-friendly Johannesburg that can create much needed jobs. We must dismiss the idea that a choice needs to be made between government or business, especially when our interests for Johannesburg align.

One such partnership that is already underway and bearing fruit, and which we will recommit to later this month, is the City’s joint effort to deal with the pothole problem. The City has partnered with insurance companies Dial Direct and Discovery Insure through the Pothole Patrol initiative to fix potholes across Johannesburg at a greater pace to the benefit of the City’s residents, who often have to fork out thousands of rands to repair damage caused to their vehicles, a cost often borne by insurance companies. It is also not safe to have potholes on our roads. We are therefore thankful for this partnership and its investment in Johannesburg’s road infrastructure.

In closing, I want to remind all present here of the City’s 7 priorities, which are:

A City that gets the basic right

A safe and secure City

A caring City

A business-friendly City

An inclusive City

A well-run City

A smart City

These seven priorities will be the framework that will guide the State of the City Address and our programme of action, and which the MMC of Finance, Cllr Julie Sudabby, through the Budget Speech, will pronounce on how it will be funded.  

With that in mind, let’s get to work. A re sebetseng, Jozi!