Mayor Parks Tau’s upcoming State of the City Address is expected to highlight the City’s service delivery and infrastructure wins over the past 20 years, and focus on plans for the year ahead.
Infrastructure is set to feature high on the agenda as Executive Mayor Mpho Parks Tau delivers his State of the City Address (SoCA) on Monday, 14 April.
The SoCA is an annual address in which the mayor reports on the status of the City and outlines priorities for the year ahead.
Tau is expected to pay attention to progress made in increasing access to services as the country marks 20 years of democracy. Over the past two decades, the City has made strides in providing basic services to communities previously neglected by successive apartheid councils.
This year’s SoCA will be broadcast live on Lesedi FM, Ukhozi FM and ten community radio stations, and at public viewing areas in regions across the city.
STATE OF THE CITY ADDRESS: 2013
In the 2013 SoCA the mayor discussed a R100-billion plan, which commenced in 2012, to reconstruct and maintain infrastructure over a period of ten years. He said, “In pursuance of this objective we have budgeted an amount of R30-billion on new replacement and maintenance of infrastructure, which will be spent over the next three years.”
Addressing the housing backlog, which forced many residents to live in backyard shacks, rented rooms, informal settlements and abandoned buildings, Tau said that “Through our Sustainable Human Settlement and Urbanisation Programme, we are implementing the rollout of various housing programmes through upgrading of informal settlements; upgrading of hostels; and provision of social and transitional housing.
“We are embarking on an inclusive mixed-use housing project in the inner city. We will spend
R450-million on precinct development and infrastructure provision in 2013/14; and we have a five-year capital investment plan that is based on sequenced investment in strategic precincts, including the inner city transit precincts.”
CORRIDORS OF FREEDOM
Tau also introduced the City’s Growth and Development Strategy’s Corridors of Freedom initiative; the Corridors form part of the City’s vision for a sustainable, resilient and liveable city.
The Corridors will connect important nodes such as Rosebank, the inner city, Sandton, and Soweto and its surrounds to Joburg’s CBD. The Corridors of Freedom initiative is supported by the City’s greenways programme, which focuses on providing resilient, liveable and sustainable environments within the City by using roads, rivers and transport modes to promote walking, cycling, and sustainable public transport.
A major component of the Corridors of Freedom initiative is the continued roll-out of the Rea Vaya Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system infrastructure and service, which will soon launch its Phase C1 Louis Botha route.