City of Joburg executive mayor Mpho Phalatse has admitted that SA’s richest metro is “in ruins” as it battles service delivery challenges but stressed that her administration is working hard to transform it into a city of golden opportunities.
Delivering her maiden state of the city address on Thursday, Phalatse said the situation facing the metro’s estimated 6-million residents is “dire” as some areas have no running water and access to electricity, while potholes have become a common feature of the city’s crumbling roads network.
Joburg is SA’s economic hub and contributes about 40% of the economy of Gauteng. However, it is dogged by countless challenges, including the ageing electricity and roads infrastructure, the supply of housing and water, hijacked buildings, cable theft, heightened tension and conflict between locals and foreign nationals, and unemployment.
Phalatse became Joburg’s first female mayor after the 2021 local government elections, when the ANC’s national electoral support fell below the 50% mark for the first time since 1994.
She said after years of “neglect, mistreatment and abuse, our city now lies in ruins”.
“At 15.6%, the City of Johannesburg is currently the largest single contributor to SA’s GDP. But this figure can grow with the help of business, which will reduce our current unemployment rate of 40.8%,” Phalatse said.
When she took over as mayor in November 2021, Phalatse promised that her administration would work closely with the private sector to address the city’s socioeconomic challenges.
On Thursday Phalatse said the metro will host an energy indaba in May to look at resolving Johannesburg’s energy crisis. She said this will see the metro introducing an energy mix, partnering with independent power producers and small-scale energy generators, reducing its reliance on Eskom.
“In the meantime, City Power has extended its power purchase agreement with Kelvin by 24 months, maintaining security and reliability of supply to our customers currently supplied by the Kelvin power station.”
In 2021, the metro and privately owned Kelvin signed a two-year power purchase agreement aimed at providing the city with an additional 220MW.
Demand for electricity in the City of Johannesburg is about 2,000MW, according to information on Eskom’s website, making the municipality one of the biggest consumers in the country.
“We aim to invest R2.8bn within the next three financial years to improve the city’s water services infrastructure,” she said.
Finance MMC Julie Suddaby will embark on an investor roadshow to raise funds and attract investment to fund the city’s infrastructure projects.
“We also need residents to pay monies owed to the city,” Phalatse said. “We have seen an uptick in payments since January 2022 and we are currently exceeding our target of collecting R4bn every month. Our revenue team conducts up to 1,000 disconnections daily.”
Phalatse said the Joburg Metro Police Department had collected about R14m in traffic fines in nine weeks at roadblocks.
She said a process had been initiated for the metro’s group forensic and investigation services to conduct a property audit of the 29,000 city-owned properties, perform an evaluation of the property values, assess the state of leases and the general repairs and maintenance required to restore the properties and regularise the leases. “Where possible, properties will be released to business for better utilisation,” the mayor said.
ANC caucus leader and former executive mayor Mpho Moerane said it was a “most disappointing speech”.
“It took her 45 minutes or less [to deliver]. Instead of outlining priorities for the next years, it is disappointing that she took credit on projects that the ANC started in 2019.”
Moerane said Phalatse did not highlight any of her “achievements” since taking office in November 2021. “The city is collapsing, service delivery is collapsing, you have seen the potholes, the roads are bad,” the former mayor said.
EFF Joburg regional chair Sepetlele Raseruthe said the red berets did not expect much from Phalatse. He criticised the mayor for not highlighting the plight of Orange Farm, where some residents have been without electricity for two years.
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