By Akani Nkuna
President Cyril Ramaphosa has commended the CEO-City Clean-up Programme as integral in efforts to revitalise the City of Johannesburg (CoJ), dubbing the campaign as “impactful” for lobbying business people to partake in direct activities to renew the city.
Ramaphosa participated in the last day of the three-day programme in Kliptown, Soweto where he joined CoJ mayor Dada Morero, MECs, CEOs and community leaders to clean up the area whilst engaging with members of the community to demonstrate government’s willingness to improve the quality of the city and its surrounding areas.
“You have already started, and your work is being seen as being impactful; people are noticing it. Although critics will always say ‘this is just for show, this is just for the G20,’ but I do believe that this will be durable and that you will be able to take the work that you are doing forward,” he said.
“It is important to restore Johannesburg to its former glory; this is the most important city on the continent. It may not be as popular as Lagos, but we are the financial centre of the continent with the biggest stock exchange on the continent and leading corporates operating here.”
The programme launched earlier this week by Morero seeks to unite entities across the public and private sector, aiming to expedite urban renewal, enhance service delivery and further restore dignity within high-priority precincts in Johannesburg.
During the launch, Morero emphasised the need for collaborative measures between the city and the business community in tackling challenges that threaten the city’s developmental ambitions and to foster visible progress, ensure sustainable management, and also promote long-term investment to revitalise the city.
Ramaphosa said he was not pleased with investors fleeing the country for many reasons, including the decaying of strategic cities and district,s especially Johannesburg and EThekwini, which are both significant as strategic economic hubs.
“It was a sight of sadness to see a number of them beginning to move northwards and yet Johannesburg is always been for more than 100 years the real centre of business. What you are doing is encouraging and the messages relayed to me is that a number of corporates have decided to stay and that is precisely what we want,” Ramaphosa added.
Ramaphosa also appealed to the city’s executive and administrators to execute the city’s mandate with rigour and intent, implementing its plans to ensure that residents receive service delivery and revive the city’s economy.
Lebogang Maile, Acting Premier of Gauteng, also reiterated the call to sustain these programmes beyond the G20, urging that the province needs to be synonymous with constant development to attract investment and spearhead measures to address prevailing social ills and poverty.
“We have to be consistent, focus on the job, be decisive and most importantly, utilise the resources at our disposal properly. That is why we have to combine efforts with the private sector. We have to tap into the knowledge, skills and the resources of the private sector, government and civil society,” he said.
INSIDE POLITICS