OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 3.30pm.
GREATER Johannesburg is R2,1-billion in debt, R1-billion of which is irrecoverable, says Kenny Fihla, chairman of Johannesburg’s Transformation Lekgotla [committee].
Interest owed on that debt is at least R721-million.
The debt burden threatens to sideline eGoli 2002, the inner-city renewal plan touted by the Lekgotla. “No financial institution will lend money to us at the moment,” Fihla said at a meeting at the Johannesburg city hall.
The project plans to bring the city’s bank balance back into the black by changing the way the city is run.
One of the plans is to sell off certain assets like Metro Gas, the Rand Airport and the Fresh Produce Market to raise cash for maintaining the city’s ageing infrastructure and ensuring basic city functions run smoothly.
The Lekgotla also plans to turn waste management into a business to deal with poor management in that division and to consolidate water and sanitation into one utility. There are also discussions with Eskom to consolidate the distribution and create a single utility.
The Johannesburg zoo, which tops its own income of about R7-million with a R31-million subsidy every year, was cited as an example of a department showing operational inefficiency.
Fihla said there will probably not be any job losses among the 28000 employees. There are also no plans to employ 20000 more people needed to fill vacancies as this will gobble between 50% to 60% of the city’s budget.