Pretoria - The City of Tshwane has planned a R16 million, year-long celebration of 20 years of freedom for the city.
It will include a memorial of the death of Nelson Mandela, and an international charity auction, leading to the bestowing of The Freedom of the Capital City order.
These were some of the decisions taken at the annual lekgotla of the political executive and leadership of the City of Tshwane at the weekend.
The programme will include ceremonies, public education, community participation and social dialogue and a film festival.
Mayoral spokesman Blessing Manale said the city was putting in the R16m and other sponsors would contribute more money.
More details on the events would be made public in due course, the city disclosed at the end of its lekgotla.
The city leadership noted there was a need to improve the quality and delivery of services in the capital and assess supply chain management, human resources and strategic planning in the metro.
“The lekgotla received a work-in-progress report on performance assessments of city departments and its entities for the current financial year.
“The report emphasises the improvement of the quality of services and assessed the four broad management areas. These are supply chain management, human resources, strategic planning and service delivery,” he said.
The lekgotla acknowledged that the administration inherited a city divided along racial and geographic lines but rose to the challenge by seamlessly integrating all regions into one city.
It reflected on the emergence of riots disguised as service protests and again condemned the damage to public property and social services infrastructure.
It instructed the city administration to explore various options for recovery and repairs, including insurance claims, and civil claims against individuals.
However, it acknowledged that the city’s community engagement processes and outreach had not been sufficient enough to ensure that residents fully understood its short- to long-term plans.
“The lekgotla received the mid-term report for the first two and a half years of the current political term and the implementation of the 2011 local government manifesto. It also received the service delivery agreements review of MMCs and expressed its satisfaction on the work being done,” Manale said.
TSHWANE LEKGOTLA KEY ISSUES
* More than 100 000 on indigent register receiving free basic services.
* Generally high level of community satisfaction with service delivery.
* More than 80 percent of households have access to electricity, housing, water and sanitation with programmes under way to improve bulk capacity across city.
* New beginnings for public transport systems with the Bus Rapid Transit being developed.
* Road upgrading programmes focused on areas of greatest need.
* More than 750 000 points at which solid waste collected.
* More than 1.7 million people assisted a year at the city’s clinics.
* Development compares very well with South African and other African cities.
* Need for strong development and implementation of integrated spatial framework focused on development corridors and aligned to the National Development Plan.
Pretoria News