‘Joburg exodus puts strain on Cape Town’s service delivery’

THE exodus from Johannesburg to Cape Town will sooner or later have a pernicious effect on the Mother City's service delivery warned Minister of Social Development Lindiwe Zulu.

"An influx of people will always have an impact on service delivery, believe me," Zulu told Weekend Argus.

"We work with budgets, based on plans which are based on figures. Our figures are based on people. We base all our work on figures.

"So if there is an influx, it is obvious that there will be an impact on service delivery because there will be people unaccounted for," she said.

Zulu said Johannesburg was an example at the turn of democracy there was an influx of unbelievable proportions.

She warned that Cape Town needed to be aware of what happened in Johannesburg in 1994 and the repercussions being experienced even 20 years later.

Zulu said the City needs to be less opaque with its plans.

"They can't be looking at it in a one-sided way of thinking it is just about increasing its economy.

“They need to tell the citizens that they need to be ready for the influx.

Sandra Dickson from civic organisation Stop CoCT warned that the City did not have a budget to cop. “They will never be able to fulfil the needs of all these migrants," she said.The City's department for economic growth said that couldn't be further from the truth.

"The City welcomes anyone who would like to relocate to the city from other parts of the country," the department said

"It is a sign of our strong service delivery record that more South Africans are choosing to move their lives and businesses to Cape Town.

“We do not foresee this putting unbearable stress on our service delivery infrastructure.

According to the City skilled semigration, especially, results in the expansion of its rates base, increasing the City's ability to provide services to all its residents.

Dawie Roodt, well known economist, said the migration of Joburg residents to Cape Town would not have such a devastating impact on the economy of the City of Gold.

“The latest trend, if you like, is that certain individuals move to Cape Town for example but their actual place of work is still based in Johannesburg, they just work remotely,” Roodt said.

Roodt said it may very well be the case that the quality of service delivery takes a huge knock when more and more people move to the City.