NEW Joburg mayor Herman Mashaba says he is horrified to learn of the contempt with which investors have been treated by City of Joburg officials in the past.
Mashaba met with 100 investors, developers and business people last week to discuss changes in the inner city and promised that a shared vision and plan for the development of the inner city will be developed within the next three months.
“Fundamental basics of local government have let them down for years, coupled with an uncaring government that has been unresponsive to their desperate calls for assistance.
"These are people who are highly dedicated to turning our inner city into a safe, vibrant and prosperous place for people, small businesses and other institutions,” he said.
The meeting was the largest gathering in many years of these investors and developers.
“It shows their faith in the new administration’s commitment to deal decisively with the challenges they have faced. Their commitment is remarkable and we dare not fail them,” Mashaba said.
Issues such as unresolved billing problems, filthy streets, lack of street lights and severe shortages of visible policing leading to crime spiralling out of control were discussed during the meeting.
Earlier this year, Joburg property developers and owners told The Star they were losing millions of rand each year because of the shambles in the City of Joburg’s development planning department.
They said it could take years to get plans, site development plans and rezoning approved.
“These are just a few of the issues that face these investors, developers and businesses, and particularly the poor. It is the poor that have suffered the most from the failure to rejuvenate our inner city,” the mayor said.
This is vital in his quest to unleash Joburg’s economic potential and realise a minimum of 5 percent growth.
“I will ensure an enabling environment for small businesses to flourish and thereby create permanent jobs, while also achieving results in low-cost housing located close to work opportunities.
"Our vision must be centred on bringing people and businesses back into our inner city. Ultimately, benefiting our poorest residents,” he said.
The city owns numerous buildings that will be identified for development into low-cost housing and affordable commercial spaces for small businesses and shops.
Mashaba said he was saddened by what some children attending an inner-city school had written to him. One Grade 6 pupil wrote: “Sir, please with all your might, please develop the broken buildings to make schools or jobs.”
Another pupil wrote: “The inner city has got deep secrets. It stinks in there because toilets are not clean, there are mice and rats and there are sometimes dead bodies.”
Most concerning was a pupil’s exposure to people who “inject themselves with drugs every morning when I go to school”.
Mashaba said the city could be business-friendly and pro-poor at the same time.
Renney Plit, chairperson of the Joburg Property Owners’ and Managers’ Association (Poma), said it was too early to comment, but the meeting had been positive.
Poma has some 45 members and collectively represents some R12 billion of property investment in the inner city.
“We asked the mayor if he could appoint a dedicated person to oversee and manage the changes in the inner city who should report to the city manager or even the mayor himself. The city has maintained the billing crisis is over, yet it is far from that,” said Plit.
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