The City of Johannesburg will spend almost R10 billion in the next financial year to fund capital projects identified by residents during the 2015-2016 draft Budget Review and Integrated Development Planning (IDP) public participation process.

This was revealed in a presentation by Executive Mayor Councillor Parks Tau at an IDP Stakeholder Summit at Wembley Stadium in Turffontein at the weekend.

The City has hosted more than 20 meetings across its seven regions during which members of the public were given the opportunity to make inputs and comments on the 2015-2016 draft Budget and IDP Review.

Saturday’s meeting was a culmination of the month-long public participation process, during which submissions and proposals from various cluster meetings were discussed and, where applicable, incorporated into the final IDP document.

This was the fifth and final review of the City’s IDP under the current mayoral term, hence its theme: “The Final Push”.

Briefing more than 1 000 residents from all the City’s regions about the outcomes of the imbizos, Mayor Tau said the “final push” was aimed at strengthening the foundation of basic service provision, elevating and refocusing strategic flagship programmes such as the Corridors of Freedom, Jozi@Work, the Blue Economy, Green Economy and Smart City initiatives, improving communication methods linked to development and reconnecting with residents.

Members of the public welcomed the feedback. However they appealed to the City to fund youth skills development, build sports fields, upgrade roads, provide water and speed up housing delivery, especially in informal settlements.

Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Finance Geoffrey Makhubo assured residents that their issues would be addressed.

“We have heard your cries. Working together we can make Johannesburg great, but the city will not be developed in a day,” he said.

He said challenges around Jozi@Work, the City’s ambitious empowerment and job-creation initiative, were “teething problems that can be addressed”.

MMC Makhubo said the City had committed over R3 billion to the Jozi@Work in the 2015-2016 financial year. Residents were also encouraged to lodge complaints through the city’s call centre.

He noted that the backlog of queries had dropped from almost 70 000 to 30 000.

–Joburg.org.za