Mayor Tau promises ‘corridors of freedom’ for Joburg citizens
Johannesburg Mayor Parks Tau on Wednesday promised a city with “corridors of freedom” through residential areas and economic development that would ultimately close the gap between the rich and the poor.
Elected mayor in 2011 for a five-year term, Tau delivered his last state-of-the-city address at Turffontein Race Course in Johannesburg. He said the city had come a long way in undoing the apartheid era planning that relegated poor people to the outskirts of the city.
“Soweto was our pioneering intervention in redesigning the city, and it remains the leading national example. We are completing the task started at the very beginning of the democratic era, linking the inner city of Johannesburg to all the fragmented smaller towns and townships that are now part of the City – Roodepoort, Randburg and Cosmo City; Lenasia, Stretford and Ivory Park; Diepsloot and Midrand; Bosmont and Brixton; Sophiatown, Sandton and Alexandra,” Tau said.
At least R14 billion investment into the city in the past five years had resulted in a local developing economy and the creation of economic hubs, especially in the townships. The city was the least dependent on grants from national government, said Tau.
“We have pushed ourselves to become the largest per capita infrastructure spender in government, after national government itself. We are the city least dependent on national government grants, and the highest spender on social housing, community facilities and equipment to enable front line services.”
New developments included the Louis Botha corridor with a Rea Vaya transport service, the Paterson Park node in Orange Grove and Norwood and the Turffontein and Wemmer Pan corridors.
“We are rebuilding a state-of-the-art clinic as part of a high-rise commercial space, redeveloping the public recreation and sports facilities and started with the massive revitalisation of Paterson Park and its waterways.”
This would consist of multi-storey buildings rising along the corridor, combining commercial space, recreation and cultural amenities, market-rate rentals and housing. The drive to increase access to shelter would see the council purchasing land in strategic areas for further development, Tau said.
“This means more people across a range of incomes are able to live richer lives much closer to where they can live, work and play. This is one major development which is bridging Norwood, Houghton, Orange Grove, Bellevue and Yeoville.”
Another plan, said Tau, was to include affordable housing within one of Johannesburg’s expensive estates, Waterfall in Midrand.
Waterfall is a mixture of luxury housing and commercial properties in Midrand, also referred to as Waterfall City. The new shopping mall, Mall of Africa – the biggest shopping centre on the continent – is situated within Waterfall.
While empty stands cost hundreds of thousands of rand at Waterfall, fully completed luxury houses cost millions of rand.
The city was working with property development partners to support the upgrading of backyard informal dwellings to new kinds of formal dwelling. Tau said the informal accommodation rental sector, where property owners rented out backyard rooms and shacks, provided over 350,000 people with accommodation.
“Democratising our rental and shelter economy will be a long term effort, but a new economic democracy is indeed rising in the housing sector,” he said. - ANA