Pretoria – The City of Johannesburg says it has improved its ability to collect revenue and has drastically reduced the number of unresolved queries on its billing system.
“Our collection rate has improved to 91%, giving us cash in excess of R800 million for the 10 months up to 30 April 2013,” said the Executive Mayor of the City of Johannesburg, Parks Tau.
Delivering the State of the City Address on Thursday, Tau said the city was making progress on all aspects of service delivery, including improving customer relations.
Tau said the city was winning the war against crime and urban decay, as well as attracting new investments across the city.
“We are working with the residents, business, clients and the media to root out corruption. We uncovered cases in the Revenue, Planning and Health Departments, JMPD and Municipal Courts.
“We have opened 23 criminal cases, arrested officials and conducted 30 disciplinary hearings. In the past year, I announced the Fraud Hotline to address corruption to expose corrupt officials and take action.”
Tau said the city was also addressing issues of road quality and repairing potholes. They were also embarking on a long-term approach to resurface roads in major areas including Bryanston, Sandton, Rivonia, Parkview, Eldorado Park and Riverlea.
In committing to energy efficiency and reducing the cost of energy to households, Tau said that over a period of three years, they will install 110 000 solar water heaters in poor and low-income households.
“We will continue implementing this programme, enabling residents to save on their electricity bills. This represents 10% of the national target of one million solar geysers by 2014, and will create around 20 000 job opportunities, while stimulating local manufacturing,” he said.
In line with the city’s target of reducing waste going to landfills by 20% in 2015, Tau said they have started a programme of separation of waste. They expect to have 70% of all households involved in separating waste at household level over the next three years.
An amount of R30 billion has been allocated towards replacement and maintenance of infrastructure, which will be spent over the next three years.
Last year, Tau announced that the city would spend over R100 billion on infrastructure over a period of 10 years. – SAnews.gov.za
