Johannesburg – When the local government puts people first through services and developments, the lives of the people get changed for the better, and this is what the City of Ekurhuleni is doing to bring change in communities.
The administration under Executive Mayor Mzwandile Masina has rolled up its sleeves over the past years, with the City having undertaken a massive facelift.
Projects worth more than R10-million have been visited by the Mayoral Committee under Masina since April.
The city is also visiting businesses in the region.
“The massive infrastructure projects we are rolling out are aimed at bettering the lives of our people and also promote investment in the City, thus creating jobs for our people,” Masina pointed out.
“The visits to business is not only to thank them for identifying Ekurhuleni as a destination of choice, but also to understand the nature of their business, while monitoring if our service delivery machinery is responding to their needs.”
On Friday, the City of Ekurhuleni hit the road on a tour drive across the region to further monitor ongoing developments and completed projects.
The first stop was a low-cost housing project at Airport Park, where the City has built 144 low-cost rental housing units.
The project cost R65-million.
The Acting Mayor of the City, Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) of Infrastructure Services, Masele Madihlaba, said: “This is where community members who earn between R3 500 to R7 500 could rent units from R2 200 for two bedrooms. The three bedroom is R3 000.
“We believe that our people should have shelter over their heads, hence we have worked on this development to make sure that our community members can get accommodated to live in our classy low-cost rental apartments.”
Frans Mmoko, the MMC for Community Safety, also spoke at the newly built fire station in Germiston, where he stated the intention and aim of responding to disaster and emergency caused by fire, especially in various informal settlements in the region.
Mmoko said: “We built this fire station as a way of responding to risks and disaster that can occur, while we are also looking at saving investments in our City as fire destroys a lot.
“Our intention is also aimed at protecting our people against any risks and hazardous conditions. We have spent R56-million to build this fire station, and we started working on the project in June 2017. We officially launched the fire station in October 2018. Under this administration of Executive Mayor Masina, the City had planned to build six fire stations.”
The officials also went to another newly built fire station in Tokoza that cost R50.6-million to replace the old fire station, with the same intention of helping communities in Tokoza, Eden Park, Palm Ridge and surrounding areas. The fire station was developed in 2017 and launched in 2018.
Speaking at the site of a new reservoir in Dawn Park, the MMC of Water, Sanitation and Energy, Tiisetso Nketle, said the reservoir, which has a storage capacity of 30 mega litres, is still under construction.
It cost R88-million. The tour made a stop at the house of the late SA Communist Party leader and politician Chris Hani in Dawn Park, where his home had been turned into a museum for the tourists and community members of Ekurhuleni. MMC of Sports, Recreation, Arts and Culture Nomadlozi Nkosi said the museum aims to educate and restore Hani’s image.
The city also built an early childhood centre in Vosloorus at a cost of R20-million. Another project under way is the new taxi rank that cost R45.8-million. Pelisa Nkunjana, the MMC for Transport, said they wanted to ensure people in Vosloorus, Katlehong and Tokoza have access to a bigger taxi rank.
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