Johannesburg - Ekurhuleni can look forward to an extra 1 000 metro police officers in the near future.
Speaking at the State of the City address in Tsakane on Wednesday, Ekurhuleni mayor Mondli Gungubele said 150 new officers had been recruited, but there were plans for more.
“Looking at the strength of the EMPD (Ekurhuleni metro police department) right now it is a miracle that with the skeleton staff we have, our police continue to serve 22 precincts and a population of more than 3 million in an area of 1 975km2.
“Our EMPD remains one of the most feared and respected police departments in the country, with a number of major successes,” he said.
In his address, Gungubele announced there would be three new city design corridors developed to drive the economy in areas such as logistics, manufacturing, education, trade, construction and hospitality.
These corridors are:
The Thami Mnyele corridor,which concentrates develop-ment in a straight line from Tembisa to Vosloorus, including all surrounding areas along the corridor, with the main driver for economic development in this corridor being the high-level roads and transport infrastructure.
The OR Tambo Aerotropolis corridor focuses development along the triangle formed by Kempton Park, Boksburg and Germiston, including Edenvale and Benoni. This corridor leverages on the creative, gateway trade, technology research and development, and logistics sectors.
The Thelle Mogoerane corridor, which runs from Vosloorus to Nigel and includes developments such as Carnival Junction and OR Tambo inland port, is aimed at unlocking the logistic potential of the city.
“The approach of building a new city and an identity means a significant proportion of this administration's time was vested in the development of spatial development frameworks. This new city design has led to the conceptualisation of an effective way to reconfigure our urban spaces and economic centres along three key functional economic corridors,” Gungubele said.
The developments in this area will have mixed land uses that include industry, as well as human settlements located nearby.
The city is taking a new approach to intensify the provision of houses through building high-rise residential units, including flats for both RDP schemes, rental and purchase, through bank loans.
“This new approach will lead to a quantum leap in housing development in Ekurhuleni, enabling us to efficiently accommodate more people and provide more livable human settlements with a full basket of services and social amenities, such as schools, clinics and public transport,” said Gungubele.
Township economy revitalisation was also a key area for the municipality, he said.
“This issue has been elevated by the Gauteng provincial government because of the need to boost the economic fortunes of our previously disadvantaged people. Nothing would be more fulfilling than seeing a small township business growing to do business globally as a result of our intervention,” he said.
This was being done through the establishment of township hubs, awarding projects to emerging contractors, the incubation of SMME projects in construction, jewellery, chemicals and the automotive industry, as well as agriculture.
Speaking on urban regeneration, Gungubele said the Germiston station, the biggest shunting station in Africa, was set to be upgraded and that an agreement had been signed with the Passenger Rail Agency of SA and the provincial government.
“It will be a state-of-the-art taxi rank with informal trading facilities and a high-density social housing component on top of the rank, plus an economic hub,” he said.
The Tembisa urban renewal project is also under way, and the streets linking the civic node to the Limindlela station and the Swazi Inn informal trading area will be improved.
The city has also invested in the Winnie Mandela Civil precinct, with a new library and a new, one-stop customer care centre. Trees and street furniture are to be installed soon.
Though it was only a few months old, Gungubele said, the Clean Neighbourhood Friday, at the end of each month, was gaining momentum.
In addition, the city had launched night-time inner-city cleaning programmes.
“We have introduced world-class mechanical street sweepers to clean and disinfect our streets at night when there are few humans and vehicles around. For now we have prioritised Germiston, Kempton Park, Boksburg, Bedfordview, Brakpan, Alberton, Edenvale, Springs and Benoni,” he said.
Gungubele said the city was aware some communities still needed taxi ranks. Four had been built and another three would come to Bluegumview, Phutaditshaba and Vosloorus.
He said all townships now had their own fire stations.
Other successes were:
The rollout of free wi-fi to 900 hotspots.
The introduction of e-health in 40 clinics to shorten waiting time and remove the need to open files if the patients’ details are on the system.
The investment of R2.7 billion in roads and stormwater infrastructure.
The Harambee bus project is on track to roll out from July in Tembisa.
Ekurhuleni continues to have clean water, attaining the Blue Drop status once again.
Gungubele said the work done in the last five years in improving the management of its finances, reporting on service delivery and compliance to legislation was rewarded by two back-to-back clean audits.
The Star