Mayor Tau answers your questions
Joburg Mayor Parks Tau engages with the public over issues facing the his city.
|||SE Ndotho writes: On Saturday October 4 at 4.15pm I drove around Nugget Street. It was so disgusting to see our beloved city being transformed into a gutter while we have a charming, intelligent mayor running the city.
I want to suggest that the mayor takes a ride around at that time and see and understand what utter disgust is there. I hope and know our mayor is a great listener.
Parks Tau responds: There are two issues I want to attend to here. But before I do, let me say that this is a topic we must keep returning to until it is resolved. For, in the end, as decent human beings, we must, I imagine, all yearn to live in environments that are conducive to our health and general well-being. If this be true, why then do we litter? I will come back to this.
The two issues that require emphasis are the responsibilities we all have to keep our city clean as residents, on one hand, and the responsibility the city has to its residents.
I walk, cycle, use public transport - as part of EcoMobility - but also drive around our city in the normal course of things. I may not have been in Nugget Street at the specific time SE Ndotho was, but I can safely say I have a fair sense of the general state of our city with respect to its levels of cleanliness. Am I overjoyed by it? No.
Are we doing something? Definitely.
But first let me make a call to our residents that all of us have a duty not to litter. It starts with you and me. It would be wrong, absurd even, to litter and then be upset that your litter is not being picked up at your preferred speed. Let us all desist from littering. Let us also teach our children that littering is bad not just for the environment, but for them too. It’s always best to inculcate good behaviour at a young age.
Let us also report fellow residents – our neighbours and friends – who litter openly, or small truckers who illegally dump rubble around the city unencumbered by shame. These are our civil responsibilities. We do no one else a favour by failing to do this – least of all the state. It’s something we must do for our own benefit as residents of this great city.
But once the damage is done, the city must clean up. No excuses. PickItUp exists specifically for this reason.
Our Inner City Roadmap, too, is part of the city’s response. We are working closely with business, residents, religious leaders and civil society to turn around the inner city – block by block. Progress is uneven, but there is progress nonetheless.
I must thank those who have partnered with the city to improve our surrounds. They are solution-oriented people, the sort we must applaud. But those who continue to litter and/or neglect their derelict structures will soon encounter Operation Buyis’ iJozi, an operation focused on problematic hot spots with a view to turning them into liveable environments.
We will reclaim our clean city – block by block.
Gerard Jonathan writes: You claim that Jozi is a world-class African city when the public transport is a hot mess. I get the Metrobus, which comes twice a week, if I’m lucky.
What is really sad is that there are schoolkids who depend on this bus as well as people who do not want to use minibus taxis. It is the only bus in the morning along Oxford Road going through Braamfontein.
You call the call centre – which, by the way, is another waste of ratepayers’ money, in my opinion – and you are referred to the depot, where they do not take your call.
Is there not a budget for buses and maintenance? What is done with the money?
Using buses that break down or that have seen better days isn’t practical. Most buses do not have numbers, so you must guess. Sometimes the drivers just drive past without stopping. They can also be rude and impatient.
parks tau responds: Gerard raises a number of issues that are important, although his main concern is the reliability of buses. Gerard is correct to be concerned about drivers who are rude and impatient. Our drivers must, at all times, be courteous and helpful, understanding that they are employed to perform an important service to residents.
The small matter of buses without numbers could generate much confusion, resulting in one thinking the bus comes only twice a week when on other days it passes without displaying its number.
The important tenets of Batho Pele were agreed to in order to obviate this type of challenge – to drive home the point that what we do is about service, it’s about helping others.
I am aware that drivers are undergoing training in customer care and related fields but, this notwithstanding, I will take up this issue of driver behaviour with the city’s administration for the specific attention of the managing director of Metrobus.
On Gerard’s main issue of buses’ reliability, allow me to say the city has invested about R500 million not only to overhaul our fleet, but to make our buses environmentally friendly.
On July 24, Metrobus began to roll out its new bus fleet. This fleet includes dual-fuel buses and new buses to ensure adequate service delivery, while other buses are being rehabilitated and converted to use diesel and compressed natural gas.
Our new fleet, referred to as New Beginnings, will have 190 new buses operating by mid-2016. The first 70 will be branded in new colours similar to those of the Rea Vaya BRT because we want to demonstrate that this is also quality public transport and that Metrobus is part of an integrated transport system in the City of Joburg.
The buses are environmentally friendly and wheelchair accessible. Our view is that as we introduce the new buses and improve the quality of the buses in use, this will have an influence on their reliability and frequency, with fewer breakdowns.
lNeed the city’s attention? Sending your questions to askthemayor@inl.co.za
Saturday Star
* E-mail your opinion to IOLletters@inl.co.za and we will consider it for publication or use our Facebook and Twitter pages to comment on our stories. See links below.
@IOL on Twitter
IOL News on Facebook