Executive Mayor Citichat 23 January 2006

CITICHAT 1/2006 - 23 January 2006




The Effectiveness of the Council under the Executive Mayor 2000-2005



Trust you had an enjoyable festive season and very best wishes for 2006.



Cities are complex organisms and Johannesburg is more complex than many. A population of 3.2 million people (2001 figure increasing @ XXXXX per annum) concentrated over 1 644 square kilometers with over one million households (plus 22% of its population in informal dwellings); a budget of R13 billion plus capex of R1.1 billion and delivering R86 billion GGP (in ’95 Rands) is big in anyone’s language. It’s sheer size is complicated further by the fact that it is an area of great disparities brought about by in excess of a hundred years of separatist, colonial and apartheid regimes leaving some areas greatly advantaged and others hopelessly impoverished.



And the buck for the efficient working of this convolution stops at one door – that of the Executive Mayor’s office. The first Executive Mayor in the city’s history, Amos Masondo, a former Robben Islander, Soweto civic activist and trade unionist, was installed on the 5th December 2000. At the time, for many of us who hadn’t heard his name previously, it was a case of new position, new man – reserve judgement!



His five-year term has almost passed and I saw in the Sunday papers that he is to release a comprehensive report of the period 2000 to 2005 on Tuesday 24th January. Good time, before I read his report, to start this year’s Citichats and to reflect on what Council has achieved under his leadership over this period. In doing so, I realise that my view is admittedly narrowed and coloured by my involvement in the inner city, but I am also a citizen of the larger metropolis and obviously have that interest at heart as well.



Starting with the metropolitan area, one must firstly remember that it required a complex restructuring and amalgamation of many local authorities which I feel has now bedded down well. Secondly, compared to the other metropolitan areas, we have developed into a well-integrated city. Few Mayors of South African cities have been able to achieve this – in fact some have been responsible for polarizing their cities. We are also one of the few SA cities, if not the only one, to have developed a long term economic strategy, Joburg 2030. Whilst it has numerous shortcomings, it provided an excellent long-term foundation and it has lifted our sights beyond the normal five year mayoral term of office. Another positive long term plan that was developed during this period is that for Transportation and its focus on the attainment of a strategic public transport network. We need to adhere to the plan and invest strongly in aspects such as the Inner City Distribution System (ICDS) and the proposed public transport hub around Park Station. My criticisms are that we are not taking the opportunity of 2010 to ‘raise the bar’ and go for a light rail solution to the ICDS nor are we sufficiently committed to bicycles as a viable form of transport – “The measure of a good city is one where a child on a tricycle or bicycle can safely go anywhere. If a city is good for children, it will be good for everybody else. Pedestrians and bicyclists should be given as much importance as motor-vehicles; even more so in developing country cities, where most households don’t own cars."



The past five years has seen significant improvement in many aspects of previously disadvantaged citizens’ lives - the upgrading of public space in Soweto including the tarring of roads comes to mind as also increased access to basic necessities.



The successful hosting of the World Summit for Sustainable Development was a great confidence builder in our ability to host international events. This applied not only to Johannesburg but to the country as a whole and it was also a source of great pride for the ordinary citizens of Johannesburg.



The irritations of electrical outages and defective traffic lights and collection problems – the latter having appeared to have improved quite dramatically recently – need to still be seen, I believe, in context of the lack of adequate maintenance and capex expenditure over many previous administrations. However, there appears to be a definite lack in planning of bulk requirements to meet the current growth. Planning is still taking too long in providng approvals to submissions and land use management does not appear to be efficient. There is a nagging concern that city officials are either not fully accountable or too busy worrying about high level strategies at the expense of on-the-ground implementation.



But, these irritants aside, the ultimate test must revolve around economic growth and metropolitan Johannesburg has experienced massive investment leading to significant economic growth of the order of 4,5% per annum.



Turning to territory I feel more comfortable with, the Inner City, I remember well that my very first reaction to the new Executive Mayor was a positive one. This was due to his recognition of the importance of the Inner City through identifying its regeneration as one of six priorities for his term in office. At last a politician who appreciates the value of the core area, I thought! That this wasn’t going to be merely ‘lip-service recognition’, as was the case with previous administrations, was underscored by his appointment of a single councillor on the Mayoral Committee with responsibility for the inner city. His commitment to the future of the inner city was again accentuated a year later when he agreed to the erstwhile Inner City Office becoming an independent Council entity, the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA). The JDA would be responsible for project implementation in the metro area but specifically, for the first two years of its existence, limited to the Inner City. .



Recognition, responsibility and implementation capability supported by a substantial financial contribution via Blue IQ, resulted in the first major investments in the inner city for decades. And it was correct for the initial investment to be that of the public sector for that initiative sent out a strong message to the private sector that the Executive Mayor was serious about his priorities and that he was determined to restore confidence in the Inner City. Private sector investment followed. It is quite difficult to estimate the amount of investment that has been attracted over the past five years but it is must be in the order of R10 to R20 billion. That excludes probably another R10 billion that has been planned and not yet commenced. At the end of the day, investment is what it is all about for investment reflects stability and confidence.



Downsides? Sure there have been downsides during the past five years!



Top of the list must be the issue of disorder and lack of adequate law and by-law enforcement. That there has been an improvement in this area cannot be denied but we really have a long way to go. Whilst the Inner City Task Force does its best and is responsible for much of the improvement, it needs far more resources to be truly effective. In my opinion, the JMPD have consistently underperformed but this may also be exacerbated by the fact that they are too stretched to be effective. The massive growth that we are experiencing requires equally large growth in law enforcement but we also need attitudinal change. Areas such as Hillbrow and that surrounding Joubert Park are not acceptable and, if anything, these areas have deteriorated over the past years.



Grime remains a massive issue. Those parts of the Inner City that are not covered by CID services are unacceptably dirty. Pikitup appears to concentrate on areas that are reasonably easy to manage and receive remuneration for and then totally ignores others.



Pavements over much of the city are in the most awful condition. Here is such an obvious visual target for improvement – maybe via the Central Government’s Extended Public Works Programme. Decent pavements will facilitate cleaning and will dramatically change the face of the city. Look at Braamfontein and Main Street for proof of the value of such upgrading! We need a programme that will systematically upgrade Inner City pavements be it over the next ten to fifteen years.



Talking of pavements must lead to the vexing issue of informal trading, probably more responsible than any other single aspect for the deterioration of our public space. Hopefully, the experiment of providing rows and rows of informal trading stalls will prove for once that this approach is ineffective unless accompanied by education, enforcement and additional cleaning resources. Even then, maybe it is time to rethink our policy towards informal trading. Whilst many are quick to plead for nothing to impede the marginalized from making a living, or that informal trading is a poverty alleviation approach, the fact of the matter is that a very high percentage of street traders are nothing but fronts for formal sector traders.



Still on the issue of poorly managed public space – Oppenheimer Gardens is disgusting and our prime space, Beyers Naude Square, is surrounded by appalling edge buildings that act as a giant open air urinal – we need to develop new thinking for public space. Dr Enrique Penalosa, previous mayor of Bogota:- "The least a democratic society should do, is to offer people wonderful public spaces. Public spaces are not a frivolity. They are just as important as hospitals and schools. They create a sense of belonging. This creates a different type of society—a society where people of all income levels meet in public space is a more integrated, socially healthier one.” And no, I still don’t think that the proposed new public space offered by the Gauteng Provincial Government Precinct is going to provide such a space!



Our heritage conservation has suffered greatly due to inadequate enforcement and a laissez faire attitude to this important aspect of the city. Just look at the hulks of great buildings that are allowed to stand as monuments to degradation with no apparent intervention. Others are altered and added to in complete contravention of the law. The American conservationist, Donovan Rypkema, points out that “a city doesn’t get its character from brassy new hotels with space capsule elevators gliding up the walls. Nor does character come from Astrodomes or from phallic monuments to architectural egos. Character comes from people, from the past, from tradition, from the interplay of human forces and emotions in the process of daily life.” We need to encourage owners of heritage buildings to refurbish through rates credits on the one hand and heavy fines for non-compliance on the other.

The late American urbanist Dan Sweat once commented wryly that if the city does not deal constructively with the urban poor – the urban poor will deal destructively with the city. Whilst there have been some good poverty alleviation initiatives emanating from the city, there just hasn’t been enough. We have not paid enough attention to dealing with the city’s urban poor, the squatters, illegal occupiers, gangsters and others. Five years should have seen a plan in place that recognises that ‘the poor will be with us always’ and looks at innovative ways of accommodating them.



Over all of these downsides is a concern of a total lack of strategic direction regarding the planning of the Inner City. The planning regime appears to be bogged down in high level strategies that don’t necessarily translate into pro-active implementation on the ground. We need to seriously look at the city’s hopelessly outdated zoning laws; we have been badly damaged as a city by stupid parking ratios, yet these issues are ignored.



Whilst these comments are an honest attempt to review the past five years under the Executive Mayor, it is also worth noting that this year, 2006, is the tenth anniversary of the start of the Johannesburg Inner City Urban Revitalisation Process. It is also the beginning of a new term of political office. It will thus be a good opportunity to set a new strategy for the next five/ten years, a strategy that honestly interrogates and addresses the strengths and weaknesses of the process to date and sets us in the right direction for the future.



For my money, I think the Executive Mayor and his team have done a very good job. I certainly would like to see him lead the city through another term when most, if not all, of the downsides I have highlighted can be addressed. And in passing, the thought of change in order to meet gender ratios made me shudder – it is totally unacceptable and ridiculous. Best regards, neil