Mpho Phalatse, Joburg's under-fire mayor says SA’s richest metro — which is dogged by a R300bn infrastructure backlog — is well on its way to recovery, exceeding revenue-collection targets by billions of rand over the past eight months.
Phalatse, together with her mayoral cabinet, held a briefing on Wednesday to discuss the metro’s progress implementing service delivery initiatives, noting that the work done had restored hope and dignity in the lives of residents.
“Indeed, we still have so much work to do but Joburg is starting to look [and] feel better,” she said.
When Phalatse took over as mayor in November 2021, after local government elections where the ANC electoral support fell below the 50% mark for the first time, the DA-led coalition promised to turn Joburg around after years of “neglect, mistreatment and abuse”.
The city is the heart of business activity in Gauteng, which accounts for more than a third of the country’s GDP, but it’s beset by a raft of challenges, including ageing power and transport infrastructure, insufficient housing and water, hijacked buildings, potholes, cable theft, and simmering tension and conflict between locals and migrants.
In January, the DA-led coalition running the metro, which has 13 entities and a budget of R77.3bn for the 2022/2023 financial year, outlined 38 interventions aimed at ramping up delivery of municipal services to the city’s 6-million residents. They included issuing title deeds, reducing the housing backlog of almost 500,000 units, upgrading informal settlements, getting independent power producers (IPPs) online, fighting crime and corruption, refurbishing the city’s ageing bus fleet, and improving water and power supplies.
Performance assessment
“Of the 38 interventions we set on achieving by the end of the financial year, we have achieved 66% (or 25) of them; we partially achieved nine of them; and four were implemented but did not get over the line,” Phalatse said. “These were our initial interventions but along the way we managed to complete and advance projects we had not initially set our sights on.”
Phalatse, who is fighting off attempts to remove her after the ousting of DA councillor Vasco da Gama as council speaker after a recent motion of no confidence, was joined on Wednesday by members of her mayoral committee (MMCs).
The mayor characterised transport as the main driver to building a well-run, inclusive and business friendly city. “As it stands, not everyone stays close to economic and personal opportunities, but this matters less when public transport is affordable and works well, and is well integrated,” she said.
The metro spent R49.8m refurbishing an ageing fleet of 105 buses run by Metrobus: “This is a huge boost for the second-largest bus operator in SA, which employs 890 people, operating a fleet of 420 buses, which includes two luxury buses and six special-needs buses with hydraulic wheelchair lifts,” Phalatse said.
She also commended the city for “rooting out irregularly employed fixed-term staff whose contracts were illegally converted to permanent [employment]. This intervention saved the city close to R100m per annum, which will be directed towards service delivery”.
Human settlements MMC Mlungisi Mabaso said the municipality has issued 1,314 title deeds and is upgrading more than 300 informal settlements.
Transport MMC Funzi Ngobeni said the metro would spend R90m over the next three years on its bus refurbishment programme. The first phase of the Rea Vaya bus project from the Joburg CBD to Sandton, via Orange Grove and Alexandra, is expected to be operational by about the third quarter of the current financial year.
Finance MMC Julie Suddaby said her department had launched a “revenue collection war room” and had exceeded collection by R2bn compared with the same period last year, while still assisting customers unable to pay rates and utilities bills.
Phalatse said the appointment of a city manager was expected by the end of September: “It is critical that the city has competent and permanent chief administrator.”
Another view
African Independent Congress councillor Margaret Arnolds, who has proposed the no-confidence motion against Phalatse, said: “The governing coalition has not done anything in this city, they have not cut grass, they have not done anything.
“What they are doing is purging senior managers and spending the city’s money on legal fees. They are singing their praises and doing all of this [highlighting progress made] because minority parties will be bringing forward a motion of no confidence against the mayor.”
The minority parties, including the ANC, have accused Phalatse of corruption and maladministration, and for presiding over a lack of service delivery in areas such as Eldorado Park.
mkentanel@businesslive.co.za
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