Newly elected Johannesburg executive mayor Herman Mashaba has vowed to breathe life back into Johannesburg’s inner city and create a platform of opportunities for smaller businesses and entrepreneurs to thrive.
In what is a rapidly transforming urban space of mixed development types, which served for decades as the central business district of the sprawling metropolitan area, opportunities abound.
With an unemployment rate of 31%, leaving 800 000 of the City of Johannesburg’s residents without jobs, a new ten-point plan has been drawn up, aimed at tackling the most pressing issues, including corruption, unemployment, stalled economic growth and housing, as the new administration works to rebuild a decayed “inheritance”.
Unpacking his plans at a recent American Chamber of Commerce in South Africa-hosted breakfast, in Johannesburg, Mashaba explained that the new Democratic Alliance-led administration would run a responsive and pro-poor government that featured the creation of an enabling environment for businesses to establish themselves and flourish, which would go a long way towards bolstering the economy and reducing unemployment.
“We need to have our city back, develop high-rise buildings, low-cost and affordable housing and affordable commercial space for small, medium-sized and microenterprises,” he said.
The economic revival of the inner city will help Johannesburg reach the target of 5% economic growth and provide opportunities for the millions of residents living in 180 informal settlements without access to basic services or jobs.
“The City of Johannesburg owns many buildings that will be audited and identified to provide low-cost housing and affordable commercial spaces for small businesses and shops to reverse the inner city’s decline and bring business and people back into the inner city.”
He once again declared corruption public enemy number one, with a full forensic audit of the city’s finances and administrative structures under way to root out those guilty of corruption and send them to jail.
Another priority for the city is to “professionalise” the public service to ensure it runs efficiently – and serves civil society – regardless of which political party is in charge.
“You have no idea what we have inherited,” he commented of a 33 000-employee staff complement, rooted in patronage mostly at its top levels.
In addition, the official housing waiting list and an audit of all the houses built in the past five to six years will be completed in due course.
“We will also bring an end to the deep-rooted corruption [pertaining to] the housing lists and make the process of selecting beneficiaries transparent, open and fair,” Mashaba explained.
The “official housing waiting list” will be publicly available at government offices and to communities to ensure that it is transparent and the allocations fair.
Mashaba also aims to deal with the severe shortage of high-quality houses, with a 250 000- to 300 000-house backlog in Johannesburg.
The administration plans to complete an audit of the number of completed houses built by the public sector, but which are unoccupied and have not yet been allocated or handed over to beneficiaries, with plans in place to take stock, attend to those houses in need of repair and allocate them urgently.