Mechanical Technology — May 2013
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O
n 9 May, 2013, at the Linder Auditorium of the University of Witwa-
tersrand, Parks Tau, executive mayor of Johannesburg, delivered his
state of the city address. In his opening welcome, he refers to Johan-
nesburg as “one of the greatest cities in the world” and suggests that his 2013 address
would be about positioning the city “as one of the leading global cities; a city of innovation, and
economic dynamism; a city that mobilises the strengths and qualities of its diverse population;
and a city that cares deeply for all its residents, through its commitment to the provision of world
class services for all.”
Introducing the results of a citywide consultation process about the future. Parks Tau revealed
a Joburg 2040 vision developed “for a city that is sustainable, liveable and resilient. This is a
vision of a city that talks to its people and creates places that they want. It is sustainable because
it delivers infrastructure and ensures everyone has services. It is resilient because we have the
capacity to respond to unexpected and unpredictable events.”
Stirring stuff from a mayor with sound political sensibilities. But what of the service delivery
and billing issues that have dogged Johannesburg for so many years?
Tau calls these “current challenges” and assures us that Johannesburg councillors are com-
mitted “to transform this city and to leave a sustainable and lasting legacy for future generations.
We hear your concerns about the quality and effectiveness of service delivery .... We are winning
the war against crime and urban decay and we are attracting new investments across the city,”
Quoting statistics, he says that Johannesburg has drastically reduced the number of unresolved
queries on its billing system; improved its collection rate by 91%, giving the city cash in excess of
R800-million for the ten months up to 30 April 2013; reduced the average waiting time on its call
centre from 164 seconds to 24 seconds; and improved the call abandonment rate from 27% to 6%.
I have no doubt that Johannesburg is a steadily improving city. The city is cleaner and more
vibrant than it was 15 years ago, and the housing, transport and commercial infrastructure de-
velopments around Ellis Park, Ghandi Square, Mary Fitzgerald Square, the mining quarter and
up into Braamfontein have significantly improved inner city ambiance. As Parks Tau points out,
over R100-billion as been committed to improving infrastructure over a period of ten years and,
inline with this target “we have budgeted an amount of R30-billion on new replacement and
maintenance of infrastructure, which will be spent over the next three years.”
But corruption, incompetence and complacency among the employees responsible for service
provision remain critical obstacles. “We are working with residents, businesses, clients and the
media to root out corruption ... In the past year I announced the Fraud Hotline to address cor-
ruption to expose corrupt officials and take action,” Tau insists.
But it is the face-to-face and telephonic interactions between residents and municipal employees
that dominate our sense of the health of Johannesburg. Are these interactions ever monitored
for accountability purposes? Are municipal employees ever sanctioned or rewarded for the effort
and enthusiasm they put into solving peoples’ legitimate problems?
In any talk on parenting skills, the message is to establish clear boundaries and then to link
them to a set of consequences should they be breached. It is hard to believe that consequences
are being applied to South African municipal or government employees. Accountability, as de-
scribed by Parks Tau, is limited to monitoring the numbers generated by the IT and call centre
systems and hoping these numbers go down via transparency alone. But these metrics cannot
reveal the quality of a service delivered by municipal employees. It is like asking us to trust our
police force because crime is going down, regardless of the unreasonable and often brutal actions
of individual officers.
Johannesburg can be a great city. It is hard not to support Parks Tau’s visions: of an undivided
and reconnected city with transport corridors that obviate the need for private cars; a liveable
city, with good access to clean air, food, safety and cultural expression; an economically vibrant
city; and a city that encourages change and opportunity for its citizens.
It is the first right in his vision that seems the most ellusive though, ‘the right to developmental
service delivery’, where citizens have the “right to hold us accountable and become active par-
ticipants in the delivery of services.” In this regard, we need much more action from our mayor
to ensure that appropriate consequences are applied to his employees when they fail to deliver
acceptable services in an acceptable way. A world class city has to have employees that are able
and willing to deliver world class services.
Peter Middleton
Johannesburg, accountability
and consequences
