The City of Johannesburg (CoJ) has appointed Dr Tshepo Mahanuke as Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) CEO, and will usher in a service delivery ethos, said CoJ Transport MMC Funzi Ngobeni.

Mahanuke will be tasked with ensuring the city’s roads network is fit-for-purpose through proactive repairs and maintenance, as well as significant investment in extending the city’s road-related infrastructure network to cater for an ever-growing Johannesburg, he said.

Key to achieving these envisioned successes is the continued organisational stabilisation of the JRA. The entity currently has a significant number of vacancies, particularly at depot level where the actual repair and maintenance of our roads, traffic signals, bridges and stormwater infrastructure take place, said Ngobeni.

Additionally, there are several crucial managerial positions with people in an acting capacity, including the heads of department of infrastructure development, public relations and stakeholder engagement, as well as regional operations.

Regional operations is responsible for what occurs across the JRA’s depots, as it relates to repairs and maintenance, either proactive or reactive, Ngobeni added.

"It will be Dr Mahanuke’s responsibility to fill these posts as urgently as possible, while paying careful attention to attracting individuals with the right skills and ethics," he said.

Over the coming months, the city will spend R20-million to refurbish JRA depots. This is to ensure depot workers carry out their duties in a conducive environment, and to the satisfaction of residents.

This allocation is in addition to the R1.1-billion for capital projects, including new roads and traffic signals, as well as R918-million for repairs and maintenance.

"I am optimistic that, with his attention to the need to create a good organisational culture and improving staff morale by addressing human capital challenges within JRA, it will begin to realise effective and efficient service delivery," Ngobeni noted.

The JRA manages a road network of 13 599 km and, as the economic heartland of South Africa, the roads agency has a responsibility of driving sustained economic growth through the seamless movement of goods and services.

"Mahanuke arrives at the JRA to lend his extensive executive management and engineering training and experience to our endeavours to stabilise an entity that carries the multi-party coalition government’s hopes of economic prosperity for the City's six-million residents," said Ngobeni.

"To the employees of the JRA, the arrival of a new CEO allows us a moment to press the reset button and usher in a new era of possibilities," he said.