City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality

City of Johannesburg
Metropolitan municipality
Seal
Location in Gauteng
Coordinates:
Country	South Africa
Province	Gauteng
Seat	Johannesburg
Wards	130
Government
• Type	Municipal council
• Mayor	Parks Tau (ANC)
Area
• Total	1,645 km2 (635 sq mi)
Population (2011)
• Total	4,434,827
• Density	2,700/km2 (7,000/sq mi)
Racial makeup (2011)
• Black African	76.4%
• Coloured	5.6%
• Indian/Asian	4.9%
• White	12.3%
First languages (2011)
• Zulu	23.4%
• English	20.1%
• Sotho	9.6%
• Tswana	7.7%
• Other	39.2%
Time zone	SAST (UTC+2)
Municipal code	JHB

The City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality is a metropolitan municipality that manages the local governance of Johannesburg, South Africa. It is divided into several branches and departments in order to expedite services for the city.

Johannesburg is a divided city: the poor mostly live in the southern suburbs or on the peripheries of the far north, and the middle class live largely in the suburbs of the central and north. Unemployment is near 46% and most young people are out of work. Around 20% of the city lives in abject poverty in informal settlements that lack proper roads, electricity, or any other kind of direct municipal service. Another 40% live in inadequate housing with insufficient municipal housing.

History

During the apartheid era, Johannesburg was divided into 11 local authorities, seven of which were white and four black or coloured. The white authorities were 90% self-sufficient from property tax and other local taxes, and spent Rand 600 (USD $93) per person, while the black authorities were only ten percent self-sufficient, spending Rand 100 (USD $15) per person.

The first post-apartheid City Council was created in 1995. The council adopted the slogan "One City, One Taxpayer" in order to highlight its primary goal of addressing inequal tax revenue distribution. To this end, revenue from wealthy, traditionally white areas would help pay for services needed in poorer, black areas. The City Council was divided into four regions, each with a substantially autonomous local regional authority that was to be overseen by a central metropolitan council. Furthermore, the municipal boundaries were expanded to include wealthy satellite towns like Sandton and Randburg, poorer neighbouring townships such as Soweto and Alexandra, and informal settlements like Orange Farm. The four councils or Metropolitan Local Councils (MLCs) were the Northern MLCl, Southern MLC, Eastern MLC and Western MLC (sometimes referred to as Metropolitan Substructures), under a central metropolitan council. This arrangement ended in 2000.

In 1999, Johannesburg appointed a city manager in order to reshape the city's ailing financial situation. The manager, together with the Municipal Council, drew up a blueprint called "Igoli 2002". This was a three-year plan that called upon the government to sell non-core assets, restructure certain utilities, and required that all others become self-sufficient. The plan took the city from near insolvency to an operating surplus of Rand 153 million (USD 23.6 million).

The plan was fiercely contested by trade unions, who argued that it would result in job losses and tariff increases. The core of Igoli 2002 was to restructure Metro Gas, Rand Airport, and some sports stadiums as stand-alone corporate entitites. The city bus service, the Johannesburg Zoo, the Civic Theatre, the Fresh Produce Market, and the city's property holdings were turned into corporations with the city as the single shareholder. Each was run as a business, with management hired on performance contracts.

In 2010/11 the municipality faced a qualified audit from the Auditor-General following a large number of billing issues, as the result of the flawed implementation of a SAP system. The city's call centre also experienced a crisis at the same time, with staff refusing to work.

Geography

The municipality covers an area of 1,645 square kilometres (635 sq mi), stretching from Orange Farm in the south to Midrand in the north.

Main places

The 2011 census divided the municipality into the following main places:

Place	Code	Population	Area (km2)
Alexandra	798014	179,624	6.91
Chartwell	798011	1,728	9.07
City of Johannesburg (non-urban)	798002	9,933	289.84
Dainfern	798012	6,601	4.08
Diepsloot	798003	138,329	12.00
Drie Ziek	798035	35,622	7.53
Ebony Park	798007	22,309	1.63
Ennerdale	798033	71,815	21.33
Farmall	798017	1,051	5.01
Itsoseng	798021	5,243	0.58
Ivory Park	798006	184,383	9.21
Johannesburg	798015	957,441	334.81
Kaalfontein	798005	46,147	4.96
Kagiso	798024	5,182	0.57
Kanana Park	798039	21,005	6.82
Lakeside	798037	23,503	3.78
Lanseria	798019	4,788	1.83
Lawley	798038	33,136	6.09
Lehae	798029	13,380	3.50
Lenasia	798028	89,714	20.28
Lenasia South	798032	37,110	13.98
Lucky 7	798020	0	0.11
Malatjie	798001	2,321	0.18
Mayibuye	798009	22,178	1.16
Midrand	798004	87,387	152.87
Millgate Farm	798018	172	0.88
Orange Farm	798034	76,767	12.16
Poortjie	798040	11,153	2.43
Rabie Ridge	798008	41,204	3.33
Randburg	798016	337,053	167.98
Randfontein	798027	0	9.19
Rietfontein	798023	196	2.17
Roodepoort	798022	326,416	161.50
Sandton	798013	222,415	143.54
Soweto	798026	1,271,628	200.03
Stretford	798036	61,141	7.38
Tshepisong	798025	53,260	6.56
Vlakfontein	798031	27,291	4.63
Zakariyya Park	798030	6,200	1.96
Zevenfontein	798010	0	3.11

Politics

The municipal council consists of 260 members elected by mixed-member proportional representation. 130 are elected by first-past-the-post voting in 130 wards, while the remaining 130 are chosen from party lists so that the total number of party representatives is proportional to the number of votes received. In the election of 18 May 2011 the African National Congress (ANC) won a majority of 153 seats on the council.

The following table shows the results of the 2011 election.

Party		Votes				Seats
		Ward	List	Total	%	Ward	List	Total
	African National Congress	626,026	646,328	1,272,354	58.6	84	69	153
	Democratic Alliance	377,799	374,505	752,304	34.6	45	45	90
	Inkatha Freedom Party	17,933	17,557	35,490	1.6	1	3	4
	Congress of the People	12,936	12,099	25,035	1.2	0	3	3
	National Freedom Party	8,022	8,984	17,006	0.8	0	2	2
	Independent	10,019	–	10,019	0.5	0	–	0
	African People's Convention	4,223	5,747	9,970	0.5	0	1	1
	African Christian Democratic Party	4,800	4,385	9,185	0.4	0	1	1
	Pan Africanist Congress	4,655	3,838	8,493	0.4	0	1	1
	Freedom Front Plus	2,956	2,477	5,433	0.3	0	1	1
	United Democratic Movement	2,665	2,357	5,022	0.2	0	1	1
	Al Jama-ah	2,027	2,962	4,989	0.2	0	1	1
	Azanian People's Organisation	2,629	2,173	4,802	0.2	0	1	1
	Operation Khanyisa Movement	1,666	2,757	4,423	0.2	0	1	1
	Christian Democratic Party	1,136	999	2,135	0.1	0	0	0
	African Christian Alliance	1,241	770	2,011	0.1	0	0	0
	Black Consciousness Party	775	654	1,429	0.1	0	0	0
	South African Progressive Civic Organisation	665	531	1,196	0.1	0	0	0
	The Socialist Party of Azania	190	311	501	0.0	0	0	0
	Christian Front	157	324	481	0.0	0	0	0
	Liberal Democratic Party	31	236	267	0.0	0	0	0
	United Residents Front	112	130	242	0.0	0	0	0
Total		1,082,663	1,090,124	2,172,787	100.0	130	130	260
Spoilt votes		15,803	11,724	27,527

City structure

Each province determines the structure of local government in its region. Gauteng province, run by the African National Congress, has opted for an executive mayor system. The new Johannesburg system is more efficient than before, with clearer lines of responsibility and less duplication of functions.

The newly unified city is ruled by Johannesburg's first executive mayor, as previously the mayor was a largely ceremonial position. Amos Mosondo was chosen to be the first executive mayor by the ANC's national executive office. The mayor takes ultimate responsibility for the city and leads a 10-person City Council.

The city management team implements decisions taken by the City Council and monitors the performance of the various branches of the city government. The group's head office is the Metro Centre Complex in Braamfontein, which is responsible for overall administration, financial control, supply of services, and collection of revenues. The fire department and ambulances, the metropolitan police and traffic control, museums, art galleries, and heritage sites are all controlled by separate departments within the central administration.

Some of the key city service functions are supplied by separate, self-contained entities, each run on business lines with its own CEO, each entering into service contracts with the administrative core. They are:

There are 10 utilities, including electricity which is run by City Power Johannesburg, water and sanitation which is run by Johannesburg Water, and solid waste management, also known as Pikitup. Utilities are registered companies, run on business lines. They must be self-funding, receiving no annual grants from the city. They provide billable services direct to individual households.

Agencies include Johannesburg Roads, City Parks and Johannesburg Development Agency. Each of these performs a service to the public at large – there are no direct charges to individual consumers. These are also structured as separate companies, but they are reliant on the council for funding.

The zoo, Civic Theatre, bus service, fresh produce market and property company each compete in the open market to "sell" their wares to individual consumers who choose to pay for their services. These departments have been "corporatised" into separate businesses, run by new managements on performance contracts, and tasked to cut their subsidy levels by R100-million in the next five years.

Regions

Main article: Regions of Johannesburg

New Administrative Regions (2006-)
Region A	Diepsloot Kya Sand
Region B	Randburg Rosebank Emmarentia Greenside Melville Northcliff Rosebank Parktown Parktown North
Region C	Roodepoort Constantia Kloof Northgate
Region D	Doornkop Soweto Dobsonville Protea Glen
Region E	Alexandra Wynberg Sandton
Region F	Inner City
Region G	Orange Farm Ennerdale Lenasia

The administration of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality was decentralised initially into 11 regions (largely unrelated to the 11 former apartheid administrations). These new regions were subsequently reduced in number to 7 regions in 2006. Each region is operationally responsible for the delivery of health care, housing, sports and recreation, libraries, social development, and other local community-based services.

City councillors

As of the May 2011 municipal elections, there are now 260 City Councillors in Johannesburg. The Councillors are divided into two kinds: (1) Ward Councillors: those who have won office in one of Johannesburg's 130 electoral wards; and (2) Those who are elected by Proportional Representation (PR) on the basis of party lists.

Ward Councillors have more local responsibilities, including setting up Ward Committees in their wards to raise local issues, commenting on town planning and other local matters in their ward, and liaising with local ratepayers' and residents' associations. PR Councillors are usually allocated to more political tasks within their party structures and within the City.

See also

• Johannesburg
• Johannesburg City Parks

References

• Johannesburg Government Structure

External links

• Official website of the City of Johannesburg
• Johannesburg Water
• Johannesburg City Parks
• Pikitup
• Johannesburg Metro Bus
• City Power Johannesburg
• Johannesburg Fresh Produce Market
• City of Johannesburg