Ekurhuleni mayor Mzwandile Masina arriving at the Germiston council chambers for the the State of the City address.
During his State of the City address on March 29, Ekurhuleni executive mayor Mzwandile Masina described the scenario of low-income Ekurhuleni citizens Nthabeleng, Themba and Gogo Nhlapho, who are at the heart of hardship. Nthabeleng and Themba are a young couple living in one of the 119 informal settlements in the metro.
“Let us imagine that Nthabeleng is pregnant with their first child and will immediately need professional and safe assistance,” said Mayor Masina. “This means that she must have access to a healthcare facility nearby without having to endure a long queue.
“Our government is committed to providing comprehensive social assistance to our young couple Nthabeleng and Themba as they take care of their newborn child. The national department of social development will offer Nthabeleng and Themba a R380 child support grant to help with their newborn baby. On our part as the City, we have an indigent policy dedicated to helping people and households with [an] income of less than R3 000 a month.
“In the event that Nthabeleng and Themba earn below the R3 000 threshold, the city offers them free water, sanitation and refuse collection services, assisting in keeping their costs of living low while seeking to improve their economic means.
“Our indigent policy is a short-term intervention that enables access to free services while we integrate our people into sustainable means of improving their economic conditions, meaning that Nthabeleng and Themba will get assistance until such time as their material conditions change and they are able to afford paying for these services.
“Nthabeleng’s ageing mom Gogo Nhlapho lives in a council house in Katlehong that she took title to 15 years ago. She supports two of her unemployed sons and a niece who is struggling to get through college. There are also five children in the little house and she simply can’t afford water and electricity.
“This scenario is a vivid demonstration of reality and the scourge of socioeconomic disparities in our communities. As at December 31 2016, we had 63 014 residents of Ekurhuleni deemed to be indigent. All of these residents receive free basic services in the form of water, electricity, sanitation services and refuse collection as well as qualification for housing subsidies.
“The City, through the health department, has managed to establish 21 chronic medication pick-up points. This intervention has immensely assisted people like [Gogo] Nhlapho, who suffers from a chronic diabetic illness; she can now easily access her medication.
“We are going to build 12 more clinics with modern facilities to serve all the needs of our people. We already have 94 clinics and 12 mobile clinics. We want to ensure easy access to medical care and that our children grow up in a healthy environment. Our aim is to also improve access to healthcare for pregnant people in order to also decrease mother-to-child transmission in the case of HIV-positive mothers. Already the city, working with communities, provincial and national government, has managed to decrease this number from 3.5% to 1.4% over the last five years.”
According to the mayor, between 2015 and 2016, 15 789 people made it out of the indigent category, proof that this policy, together with other job creation initiatives, are working together to improve the lives of Ekurhuleni’s people.
Opportunities in the works
The city has been allocated R44-million from the national fiscus for job creation and the proposed new Expanded Public Works Policy (EPWP) policy will make ensure that projects generate jobs for local labour. They must be 90% in the ward concerned or within 5km of that ward.
“Currently national legislation enjoins all of us to set aside 30% of project value for local businesses,” said Ekurhuleni executive mayor Mzwandile Masina. “We welcome this policy prescript. As the City of Ekurhuleni we intend on building on this national legislation by increasing the [amount] set aside for local businesses to 50% of all project value. In that way we will create no less than 35 000 work opportunities per annum. This is also in line with expanding opportunities that will stimulate the township economy.
”The City has resolved to ring-fence over R12-billion of procurement opportunities to local entrepreneurs, service providers and enterprises through The Mintirho programme. Out of this R12-billion, we have resolved to specifically make commitments of not less than R1-billion per annum on 500 youth-owned enterprises, R500-million per annum on 100 emerging construction companies and more than R500-million on black industrialists.
“We will use the rest of the remaining R10-billion for general strategic procurement for emerging black businesses and community enterprises as part of our policy of transforming economic participation.”
“The Aerotropolis Masterplan Implementation and Acceleration of the IDZ [industrial development zone] SEZ Programme are identified in our 10-Point Plan,” said the mayor. “In our endeavour to crowd in strategic investments, we have approved the MSDF (Metropolitan Spatial Development Framework) and have developed the Aerotropolis Master Plan to position the regional economy as an ideal destination for trade, tourism and investment.”