Sandton Central Business Community Speech by Executive Mayor of Joburg, Cllr Herman Mashaba
12 September 2017

With the building projects at 140 West Street, Alice Lane Phase III, Discovery, Mutual Place, the Signature Lux Hotel, The Central, and The Embassy Tower due for completion by the end of this year, investors continue to show faith in the return on investment potential of Sandton.

Four million visitors from across the world annually congregate in Sandton as the gateway to the City, the Province, the Country, and other Southern African countries. They come for business, they come to visit, and they come for fun.

As such, the City recognizes Sandton’s important role in stimulating Johannesburg’s local economy and creating jobs within the City.

As a City, we remain committed to working with all stakeholders in the area to ensure that Sandton continues to run as optimally as possible.

The purpose of our interaction today, is to ensure that we continue to strengthen these ties and for us as government to not only hear your concerns, and most importantly, do something about them.

Indeed, in most respects, the City has begun responding to concerns raised within the area. One of these issues relate to challenges presented by the transport network within the area.

We have begun addressing through a partnership between the City and the Sandton Central Management District’s (SCMD) members.

The SCMD paid for the transport study, which provided the Sandton Transport Master Plan for the area. After two years of construction and R674 million, there has been major transformation of Sandton’s streets.

In an effort to streamline and co-ordinate all facets of movement through the precinct, we have completed:

• 4.8km of paved walkways for safer, easier movement through the district;


• 3km of new landscaping with drought-resistant plants;


• 4.8km of public transport lanes feeding into the public transport loop along West, Rivonia, Fredman, and Fifth Streets; and


• Improved and expanded the Marlboro/M1 intersection improving access away from the Sandton CBD and relieving congestion at the Grayston off-ramp. Additionally, the Sandton/Alexandra precinct will see R130 million spent over the next two years with the following projects:

R64 million for tarring some roads in Alexandria;
R214 million erecting the Lees Street bus and pedestrian bridge;
R86 million completing the Marlboro off-ramp and Zandspruit;
R226 million completing streets in the Sandton CBD;
R148 million on the Grayston pedestrian and cycling bridge; and

In partnership with Gautain, PUTCO, Metrobus, the City will erect:

• A number of new Bus stop poles within the area;


• Commuter shelters at bus stops; and


• Create dedicated lanes for buses travelling through the Sandton CBD.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is only because there is the partnership between the Sandton Transport Committee, administered by the Transport Department and attended by the department itself, the JDA, the JPC, Region E officials, members of the SCMD board and other key stakeholders, that we are seeing the benefit of
public private partnerships. 

This type of partnership is a trend that must continue, not just in Sandton, but across Johannesburg, and especially in the Inner City if we are to improve the local economy and generate jobs for some of our poorest residents.

Ladies and gentlemen, this precinct attracts over 11 000 visitors a day; these are people who need to be transported from location to another.

With respect to this, we have heard the concerns regarding hostilities between Uber operators and taxi operators. I share in the concern and frustration of residents about the present
situation.

Unfortunately, the key to resolving the problem ultimate lies at national and provincial government. 

We live in an ever changing world driven by innovation and
ingenuity.

It is my personal belief that we should embrace it and seek to manage it effectively.

In the interim, the City will continue to utilise its limited policing force, the JMPD to maintain order within communities. We also continue to engage the upper spheres of government on these matters. [Pause]

Ladies and gentlemen, the City seems to receive almost daily complaints about wayleave service providers failing to reinstate road reserves that have been dug up.

Like many of you, I have, in the past, seen contractors’ abandon orange ribbon blowing across the City.

Currently, while the Johannesburg Roads Agency works to effect and maintain coordination and control over the work done by these contractors, there are limitations faced by the entity in relation to multitude of external parties working in the City.

Going forward, our approach is to utilise the skills in the private sector by insisting that all work on capital projects in the road reserve is administered by a registered professional teams.

Further to this, a penalty system has been gazetted so that if the contractor’s reinstatement of the road fails, then the contractor is fined R10 000, and we hope to see improvements in the next three months.

We are currently working with the Environmental an Infrastructure Department in the review of the Code of Practice for Working in the Road Reserve and outstanding penalties are being currently addressed.

With all the changes that the City is making, we always try to remember that development is essential, so we do not want to discourage developments by making it impossible to obtain a wayleave for work in the road reserve. But we must ensure that the work is done according to the specifications so that the road reserves continue to provide acceptable access to all users.

In terms of the City’s Sandton/Alexandria transport projects, 25 local SMMEs were contracted to the projects, and a total of 260 jobs were created, implementing the City’s objective to get Joburg working.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are all aware that while the Sandton office blocks are filled with workers, we have an informal work force just blocks away in the suburb of Alexandria.

Many of you ask me how you, as business people, can best serve the unemployed from Alexandria.

At the Alexandra College, right here in Sandton, scores of graduates have been taught the theory of panel-beating, or welding, or hair-dressing, buy they cannot get their City & Guilds
certification because they cannot find qualified, certified businesses in Sandton to put their theory into practice. 

Ladies and gentlemen of Sandton, I know you can and will help. It is important that we create job opportunities that will allow some of these youth to gain the experience and certification they need.

I urge you to be innovative in employing the unemployed residents of Sandton. When you invest in people, you invest in communities.

As the City, we will also play our part in create a business friendly environment within the City.

As such, we have initiated a review of all by-laws in the City, with a focus on those by-laws which pertaining to economic development.

So far, we have also identified 20 key performance standards which are expected to drive growth in the city’s business sector.

These standards involve various subjects including fast-tracking building plan approvals, rezoning applications, installations of new meters and clearance certificates.

In line with our priority to get the inner City working, we have allocated an operating budget of 327 million Rands for the 2017/18 financial year and a three year capital budget of R1.5
billion to the City’s Development Planning Department to capacitate the units that address these key performance areas.

Although it is still early days, the work done by these units is already yielding positive results.

This brings us to ensuring that more support for by-law enforcement takes place throughout the City, not just in Sandton.

To this end the City deployed the 117 new officers to the Inner City, given that the City’s priority exists in the Inner City. The November graduates will be a welcome addition to the JMPD to service all the duties of the JMPD including by-laws enforcement.

In the winter of 2016, I received my electricity statement and realised that the amount due was in no way a reflection of my household’s consumption, and the more I tried to resolve it, the more I realised that there was indeed a billing crisis.

I have worked closely with MMC for Finance, Rabelani Dagado to remedy the situation.

At present, only 17,797 billing queries are unresolved. The finance department are taking action so that by the end of March next year, there will be no billing crisis.
We are holding billing open days in all regions of the metro to rectify anomalies in the system.

After the 12 August billing day, MMC Dagada and I led a team from the Revenue Shared Services Centre and we investigated and resolved disputed accounts, electricity consumption queries, and refuse, sewerage, and tariff queries.

I will not rest until this crisis is resolved. Johannesburg will be a caring City. A City that puts its residents first.

We need workable solutions to have a City that works. 

I trust that those of you here today will continue to promote the economic development of Sandton in partnership with the City
and also join us in finding inventive ways of solving the greater City of Johannesburg’s oldest challenges.

I thank you.