Herman Mashaba, the executive Mayor of Joburg, has a plan to reduce unemployment in the city and create opportunities for all South Africans… and it already seems to be working.
Mashaba has said that he was heartened to see that 17 000 residents of the City of Johannesburg succeeded in securing jobs in fourth quarter of 2016, according to the StatsSA Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS), released earlier this week.
“Whilst the progress in the City’s employment figures is welcomed, we cannot afford to be complacent.”
The Mayor pointed out that there are over 800 000 unemployed residents in the City and job creation remains the top priority of his administration.
“The status quo is simply not good enough.”
“Our residents who continue to suffer the effects of sluggish economic growth will not be satisfied with marginal gains – particularly the City’s youth and nor should we.”
“When the residents of this City voted for change, they demanded an administration that would release the full potential of this City.”
“Most of all they want a responsive and pro-poor government that they can trust and believe in.”
To achieve this, this administration has set itself the task of attaining minimum of 5% economic growth and reducing unemployment in the City to under 20% by 2021.
This priority has taken center stage as the new administration has undertaken the budget process and will continue to do so as they plan for the City’s future.
The office below that rhe rejuvenation of the Inner City is key to kick-starting Johannesburg’s economic growth. This process will employ thousands of people, train artisans, lay billions of rands worth of infrastructure and create the high-density, urban-environment required for accelerated investment.
There are also now seven SME Hubs throughout the City and their plan is to expand this to twelve Hubs over the next year.
“Between August and December 2016, the City provided support to 6193 SMEs, which is over 2000 more than was achieved in the months preceding the elections. We will continue to aggressively pursue this project. We will also aggressively expand the rollout of our free Wifi network across the City.”
Small businesses create jobs.
They have an abundance of potential waiting to be unlocked and they have the ability to expand into employers of our people. That is why small business development will be one of the key focus areas of this administration.
“We have initiated a review of all by-laws in the City, with a focus on those by-laws that are involved in the decision making processes pertaining to economic development. We will be throwing open our doors to make Johannesburg an easier and more attractive destination to do business.”
A task team has been established to fast-track investment in the city. It will measure 20 service standards critical to growing investor confidence so as to make Johannesburg a more competitive investment destination. This includes land use, utility services and zoning.
Although it is still early days, the work of this team is already yielding positive results.
The revamped and rebranded Jozi@Work programme which will be launched in the next six months will ensure that jobs are allocated freely and fairly and this will also lead to more job creation as the city will be cutting out the agents who would pocket money themselves.
“This money will go directly to creating more jobs.”
The cities “Service with Pride” campaign is directly linked to making the City great and aims to create a professional civil service. A professional, committed and responsive civil service will help to attract investment, which will in turn stimulate economic growth and job creation.
“With a dedicated focus on implementing our plans we will ensure that we create an enabling environment that allows businesses to flourish and provide our residents with the opportunity to unlock their potential.”
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