SAPOA Vacancies, CCTV, Planning Citichat 2 February 2001

CITICHAT 4/2001 - 2 February 2001


SAPOA Vacancies, CCTV and Planning

Some good news about the city. Again! (We're on a roll, yeah!)

The latest available SAPOA "Vacancy" report indicates a further improvement in take up of A and B grade space. Vacancies have dropped from 6 months previously, 23.2% to 20.4% in December 2000. According to my calculations that is a whopping 48.300 square metre improvement! Braamfontein shows a slight increase in vacancies, as does Midrand, Milpark, Parktown, Randburg, Rosebank, Sandton and Woodmead/Sunninghill.

The CBD of Cape Town reflects an increase in vacancies (10% in the previous quarter up to 12.8% in December as does the Durban CBD (21.3% to 23.7%) whilst the Pretoria CBD reflects a massive improvement of 18.9% down to 8.9%.

Whilst the Jo'burg figures confirm informal reports I have been getting from a variety of sources (about trends rather than actual figures), I must say that the overall set of figures 'feels' a bit suspect and it will be interesting to see the next report which I believe comes out in April in respect of the first quarter of the year. Amongst the reports on Jo'burg I referred to, are that one of the office buildings on Gandhi Square, practically vacant for many years, is now 80% let, and the old Boland Bank building on the corner of Loveday and Market has been purchased by a computer company which is now occupying the building.

The other bit of good news is the progress being made on the CBD CCTV project. I attended a presentation earlier this week to new Executive Mayor, Amos Masondo and two of his Mayoral Committee councillors, Sol Cowan (Inner City) and Strike Ralegoma (Public Safety) by Business against Crime's CCTV Surveillance Unit MD, John Penberthy. The first phase of expanding the original pilot project of some 15 cameras to 70 is well under way. Tenders for the equipment closed earlier in the week and they are hopeful of getting the extended area covered by latest June. By the end of the year this will be extended to 120 cameras and by June 2002 the full complement of between 320 and 360 cameras will cover the area from Newtown to Ellis Park and Braamfontein Ridge to the M2.

The effectiveness of the cameras was demonstrated again in the last two weeks when a murder was recorded resulting in the two perpetrators being quickly apprehended and arrested. John believes that, so far, the system has led to a reduction in incidents in the surveillance area by about 40%.

Still on the issue of safety, the Executive Mayor, addressing the first council meeting of the year on Tuesday, stated that the Municipal Police Department (MPD) of the Council will be launched in March with a thousand officers initially. This is of course for the entire Metro area and not just the CBD but we can anticipate the city getting a fair share. The inner city received sufficient comment in his address to indicate a commitment to addressing the many issues in need of attention. One comment however that was of concern was this; "Firstly, and critically important, is to put in place a clear strategic plan of action for the city." Now of course the use of the word "city" actually refers to the entire Metropolitan area which has been officially named "The City of Johannesburg." But my understanding is that two major strategic plans are in their final stages being the Igoli 2010 plan and the Local Integrated Development Plan (LIDP) which has been produced for all 11 regions which constitute the Metro area. To the best of my knowledge the latter Plan has still to be consolidated for the Metro area and then it has to be again consolidated with the Igoli 2010 plan. I trust that this is what is being referred to because to start another planning process at this stage would be disastrous in terms of time and additional costs. What we need quickly and visibly is action, action, action. At the moment that is not apparent and there should be a major focus on getting council working effectively on the ground.

In so far as the CBD is concerned, our planning is already well advanced as two major planning exercises that have been part funded by the Johannesburg Inner City Business Coalition together with the Inner City Office have already been approved by Council being the Spatial and Economic Framework for the Inner City and the City Centre Development Framework. In this the CBD is ahead of the game and one trusts that all of this work will be capitalised on in whatever strategic planning the Executive Mayor has in mind.