Face the facts – Joburg city is on the up

As usual, the Joburg website (City of Johannesburg website (www.joburg.org.za)) cuts to the chase and tells us the facts – check out the comprehensive and highly informative (not to forget easy-to-read) Building developmental local government 2000-2005 report. Click here for the full report on how the city has fared over the last five years.

Some personal highlights:


Population of Inner City
The population of the Inner City has grown rapidly since the late 1980s, and evidence suggests it continues to grow today. A comparison of two studies, one conducted in 1992 and the other in 1996, indicates that the population of the Inner City may have doubled in the first half of the 1990s. The first estimated a population of approximately 60 000.106 The second estimated that the population had grown to between 120 000 to 128 000.107 Census data shows that this growth continued between 1996 and 2001. The City of Johannesburg has disaggregated the census data for each of its 11 administrative Regions. A comparison
of 1996 and 2001 census figures for Region 8 shows an increase in population from 203 765 to 257 180 during this period.

Office Space in the city
There are approximately 7 million m2 of floor space available in the Inner City, of which around 3 million m2 is formal office space. This represents some 57% of the combined total office space of South Africa’s next three largest cities, Durban, Cape Town and Pretoria.

Informal Trading in the city
Informal traders have been quick to exploit this potential. Anywhere between 7 000 and 10 000 informal traders work in the Inner City, many trading directly off the streets. Although the presence of informal traders is often seen as a sign of urban blight, informal trade is a
significant economic sector with an estimated annual turnover of around R 4,2 billion.

Migrant Traders in the city
Migrant traders are attracted by the Inner City’s transport infrastructure. This allows them to purchase goods in the Inner City and transport them to other parts of sub-Saharan Africa for resale at competitive prices. Approximately 400 000 to 500 000 tourist traders and shoppers from across the sub-continent make their way to the Inner City each year.

Security in the city
The Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) Surveillance Project is one of the City’s most exciting anti-crime projects. In an initial pilot project, 15 crime surveillance cameras were set up in the area surrounding the Carlton Centre, where the security office is located. Even in this limited
pilot project, the cameras have had a significant impact. Evidence suggests that crime in the area fell 40% within a short period of the cameras being installed. Over the last few years the system has been gradually expanded. It will eventually cover the entire CBD from
Braamfontein in the north to Ellis Park in the east, the M2 freeway in the south, and Newtown in the west.

Cameras are hidden in buildings overlooking strategic spots on the pavements of the CBD. The video cameras are monitored from a Carlton Centre office, and any incidents are reported to the police by radio message, who in turn reach the trouble spot in an average of
60 seconds. The aim is to eventually cut down the reaction time to as little as 10 seconds. The system conforms to international best practices and has the potential to be sold abroad.
The CCTV system had an immediate impact when it was introduced in April 2001, when just 15 pilot project cameras were installed. By December 2001, 136 arrests had been made from 285 reported cases and from those 99 prosecution dockets were opened. From this auspicious start the cameras have continued to have a significant dampening effect on crime in the Inner City.