Tshwane to accelerate land restoration process

Delivering the State of the City Address on Thursday, Ramokgopa said: "We will accelerate the process of restoring land to the dispossessed, covering various aspects of the tenure reform, with the provision of title deeds for business, residential and places of worship."

This year marks the centenary of the infamous 1913 Natives Land Act.

He said the transfer of ownership of land to churches has already started in earnest and this will be extended to other places of worship in due course. However, he added that this only applied to areas of land where there was a demonstrable history of its utilisation.

"We will also accelerate efforts towards shared economic growth by preferring co-operatives over contractors in the delivery of urban management services.

"Co-operatives will be exclusively used in areas such as the cleaning of cemeteries, cutting of grass and cleaning drainages," Ramokgopa said.

The City has reviewed its supply chain management policy to impose a minimum of 25 percent of contracts to be directed at youth, women, people living with disability and co-operatives.

While the Census 2011 suggested that the City has one of the lowest rates of unemployment in the country, Ramokgopa said the City will actively continue to seek ways of defeating the scourge.

Having achieved a total of 23 500 employment opportunities in the last financial year, Ramokgopa said the City will look to increase this figure to 30 000.

"Our innovative Vat Alles initiative, which produced over 3 000 job opportunities, has been recognized by national government.

"A reward of R29 million has been received in this regard. This money will be added to the current Vat Alles provision of R60 million to create an additional 1 500 job opportunities," he said.

The executive mayor said it's only through increased investment that the City will be able to produce more lasting decent employment opportunities.

"We are glad to announce that a joint venture of the Larimar Group and Iveco S.A. will be making an investment of R600 million in the current calendar year in the truck and bus manufacturing plant in the Rosslyn area. The project will yield over 1 000 job opportunities," he said.

The mayor further said the City is looking to increase investments from the 2012/13 figure of R1.3 billion to R1.5 billion in the 2013/14 financial year.

Ramokgopa also announced that with effect from 1 July 2013, all Members of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) will enter into Performance Agreements with the Executive Mayor aligned to best practice.

He said a framework and process in this regard has been agreed upon and work is well underway.