Johnathan Paoli
Newly-elected Executive Mayor of Ekurhuleni Nkosindiphile Xhakaza has expressed his confidence and readiness to kick off his administration ahead of the State of the City Address next week.
In an exclusive interview with Inside Metros on this week in Germiston, Mayor Xhakaza said that he felt that the last two weeks since being elected to the position has been an important period during which his administration took pride in the work that has been done.
Xhakaza said the administration has continued the work done by the previous administration in order to meet communities and unblock the bottlenecks when it comes to service delivery.
He said since 11 April, his office has been busy across the metro, including a Tembisa township hall meeting and the reopening of the Rietfontein waste disposal site.
Xhakaza highlighted credit control issues pertaining to paying for services, but said the administration has been busy implementing interventions, such as the indigent programme and debt rehabilitation.
“We are happy because it appears that we are going the right way. We as the city government must do our part, to show that our teams are ready, our depos, our engineers, so that whenever there is an outage outside loadshedding, it is attended to. But importantly, we communicate with our communities,” Xhakaza said.
The mayor said committed technicians on the ground and communication with communities was the formula for service delivery.
Also, alternative and renewable forms of energy has been a programme the city has intended since 2016, and his office was currently launching and running several initiatives, he said.
“We know those projects are ready, we must just fast-track its implementation”.
The Mayor said that more details and definite plans with clear timelines would be provided in the State of the City Address which is scheduled to take place in Germiston next Tuesday.
Asked about the timeous delivery of services by the city, Xhakaza said that a clear model of planning is fundamental to the successful provision to the residents
“The most important part is planning. Once you get things right at the planning phase, we would be able to do move with speed,” he said
The mayor said currently his administration was focusing on the closing of the financial year, on what he referred to as “100 Days’ ‘, in which to fastrack the finalisation of matters and programmes, especially those that have been stalling.
Xhakaza said that the metro and his office should be held accountable for the promises it made, but that expectations should be reasonable in the progressive realisation of the government’s targets.
In terms of the economy, the Mayor said that programmes which encourage economic growth should be restored, specifically tourism and the transportation of goods and services in relation to the OR Tambo Airport.
Xhakaza said the metro had unique advantages in terms of transportation and logistics, which could be a foundation for the expansion of the city’s economy.
“Connectivity drives industry these days. That is the unique capabilities that we have in the city, we have major highways, we have major railways. The strength of logistics and connectivity culminates in a capability that we must continue to advocate for so that we create much needed jobs for our people,” he said.
Xhakaza pointed out that the legacy of the Democratic Alliance (DA)’s administration could be found in the manner in which programmes have been stalled which had an effect of stunting the growth of skills and capabilities and was necessary to be brought back.
He reiterated the call for the University of Ekurhuleni, which is an anchor in driving the economy, and despite accusations of “vanity projects”, was important to appreciate the role skilled people play in development.
Xhakaza said his office was in communication with the Auditor’s office and remained focused on looking at the issues and attending to the challenges.
He praised the updated Credit Ratings Report which gave the city an investor rating of BBB and said that due to the executive mayor being elected unopposed represented a sign of the foundation of stability, especially for investors.
“Those aspects would really go a long way in order to get the city to turn around its fortunes in terms of financial management”.
The Mayor said that the municipality had a special relationship with business, due to the industrial capabilities of the metro, which made the funding of services possible, and so would focus its drive to both communities as well as the business sector.
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