Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo, the custodian of the City’s parks, street trees, conservation areas and cemeteries is appealing for patience from residents as it resolves its seasonal backlogs.
“We’re appealing to residents to please be patient as we methodically work towards resolving the peak summer maintenance backlogs,” said MMC Nonhlanhla Sifumba, the MMC for Community Development in the City of Joburg.
Sifumba said summer rains significantly impact on the greening entity´s ability to deliver services at an optimum level. This is largely due to the warm and wet weather which:
- Accelerates the rate of growth of long grass, shrubs and trees;
- Impedes on work schedules as employees are not authorised to operate machinery in the rain;
- Hinders contractors as it is not cost effective to commission work in the intermittent rain;
- Results in operator downtime as the overgrowth places extra pressure on machinery;
- Increases the time it takes to maintain open spaces with long overgrowth;
- Generates an increase in the number of residents requesting street tree pruning; and
- Boosts the number of users to parks, resulting in added strain on playground infrastructure and increasing bylaw transgressions such as littering and illegal parking.
The seasonal challenges are further related to an ever increasing portfolio of public open spaces. The Executive Mayor, Herman Mashaba, has recently pronounced the centralisation of horticultural maintenance, and that the various entities such as the Johannesburg Roads Agency, City Power, Johannesburg Water or Environmental Health will no longer be responsible for grass cutting as Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo will be taking over this role.
Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo is therefore appealing to residents to maintain sidewalks adjacent to their homes, as this will go a long way towards alleviating some of the pressures of timeous delivery, and will allow the greening entity to focus on parks, cemeteries and street trees that require more specialised maintenance services.
Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo would like to commend residents who are going the extra mile and have maintained the verges adjacent to their homes. Only as a collective will we be able to work effectively and efficiently to build a greater, cleaner and more vibrant Joburg.