TSHWANE will introduce a range of incentives to attract investors, including broadening services and keeping the city clean.
Mayor Solly Msimanga on Thursday said he has set his sights on turning the city – SA’s capital and official seat of government – into the continent’s economic hub, while stabilising its finances.
Msimanga was speaking at the launch of the Pioneers of Workplace Engagement (PoWE) Survey at the JSE in Sandton. He said the city would create incentives for investors to help develop the economy and create employment.
“I see no reason why Tshwane should not be the economic, industrial, logistics, processing and exporting hub of choice in Africa. Take up your shares in another exchange, take up your shares in the future of Tshwane and join us in a great journey,” he said.
“We want to make sure that within the ambit of what we can control in our rates and taxes, we can look at the special rates that we can use to attract people in those areas,” he said.
The survey by assessment company Thomas International was launched to over 100 business leaders in the JSE and is an online research tool meant to track employee relations and help public and private sector employees improve employer engagement levels.
Speaking on the sidelines of the launch, Msimanga said the city was also focusing on cutting costs and reprioritising some of its funds.
“The priority is to turn the city’s financials around; we are in serious financial trouble as the city of Tshwane, but that is not a train smash.
“We have started introducing some cost-cutting initiatives that will see us saving millions of rand that can now be channelled towards proper service delivery.”
He added: “I’ve turned away now vehicles from being channelled towards the members of the mayoral committee and towards the newly introduced high risk and anti-hijacking unit which I think is something needed to be introduced in our city.”
Msimanga, the first DA mayor in Tshwane, has only been in office for two weeks but has already made a controversial decision not to allocated luxury cars for city officials, as part of cost-saving measures. He has said metro executives will instead have to contend with driving in Hyundai or Toyota cars.
Thomas International managing director for Africa Andries Keun said Tshwane would be the first municipality to take part in PoWE with the aim of improving how city officials work.
“With SA experiencing negative economic growth in 2016, there is an urgent need to create a nationwide benchmark of just how engaged people are in workplaces,” he said.
