NEW kids on the block, the Independent Citizens’ Movement (ICM), which is gunning for all of Ekurhuleni’s 112 wards, said the metro is like a rough diamond, with endless opportunities, all it needs is visionary and ethical leadership.
This was said by ICM chairperson Joe Mojapelo during the movement’s manifesto launch in Midrand, north of Johannesburg, yesterday.
Mojapelo said according to a Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Report released in August 2020, the City of Ekurhuleni has a population of 3 774 638, of which about 70% is in the townships of Tembisa, KwaThema, Tsakane, Duduza, Katlehong, Thokoza and Vosloorus.
The households in Ekurhuleni make up about a quarter of the households in Gauteng and about 10% of households in South Africa. Over 34% of the population lives below the poverty line and with a Gini Coefficient of 0,633.
Women-headed households in the city accounted for 32,8% and 3 737 households headed by children under the age of 18, according to Stats SA report of 2017. Inequality remains an issue of great concern in the City.
Mojapelo said community service, manufacturing and finance remain the top three economic drivers in the city and yet 31% of the population remains unemployed. Only 50% of the population has completed matric or higher education.
“When it comes to service delivery, about 10% of the Ekurhuleni population still does not have access to electricity. Generally, crime still remains a matter of great concern in our country, with 5 760 people killed between April and June 2021. On average, every eight hours, a woman is killed in South Africa. The City of Ekurhuleni is believed to be the country’s headquarters of informal settlements but equally so, it is also a significant manufacturing hub in the country,” Mojapelo said.
Last month Reverend Chris Mathebula of Hope Restoration Ministries in Kempton Park was named as the ICM mayoral candidate for Ekurhuleni ahead of the local government elections on 1 November.
The movement aims to unite all South Africans towards a national vision of a prosperous South Africa for all that live in it, to embrace a national vision that knows no race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality or social class, to move past the atrocities of history and emerge to create a nation marked by excellence and integrity and to reduce and ultimately diminish crime, corruption and violence.
The movement said it represents leaving a legacy for generations to come by raising an army of independent and devoted citizens who will make a conscious decision to build South Africa against all odds.
Political Bureau