In move expected to boost ongoing inner city rejuvenation efforts, the Johannesburg branch of the South African Revenue Service (Sars) has moved office from No 4 Rissik Street to the Carlton Centre.

"Our new offices will be more spacious compared to the cramped Rissik Street branch office. From Monday, 4 October, literally all our offices will have vacated the Rissik street branch to the Carlton Centre on Commissioner Street," says Sars spokesperson Sechaba Nkosi.

The Sars Customs Office will share offices with a new Taxpayer Service Centre. "The Carlton Centre office will offer the full range of revenue and customs service, including cash payment. This is part of our programme 'Siyakha', a Zulu word which means 'we are building'. The programme is meant to introduce a service-oriented culture focussed on taxpayer needs," Nkosi says.

Sars will occupy more than 5 000 square metres in Johannesburg's best-known landmark, part of a complex that consists of a large shopping area, the Carlton Hotel and a massive car park facility.

"The Sars is confident that Johannesburg's inner city is set for rejuvenation; that is why we prefer to relocate within the inner city," Nkosi adds.

Over the years, especially during the 1990s, there was a steady exodus of businesses from the city centre to suburbs in the northern parts of the city. The mass departure saw the Carlton Centre registering a very low office occupancy and the closure of the Carlton Hotel, once Johannesburg's renowned status symbol.

In 1999 Transnet bought the Carlton Centre from Anglo American for R32-million, a move that saw the Carlton Centre slowly emerge from the doldrums to register a high occupancy of its office space in 2004.

In 2000, the rejuvenation process received a massive boost when the city's first executive mayor, Amos Masondo, announced that the inner city was to be one of the six priorities of his term of office.

Two years later the City of Johannesburg launched a plan that sought to "gradually reshape the city's economy and geography and ultimately transform it into a world-class business centre with services and standards of living on a par with the capitals of the developed world."

The plan, Joburg 2030, aims to boost investment in the city, raising economic growth in order to provide Johannesburg residents with a sustainable improvement in wealth and quality of life.

As a result, the Inner City regeneration strategy was adopted in 2003 "to raise and sustain private investment leading to a steady rise in property values" in the inner city. The Johannesburg Development Agency, a City of Johannesburg agency set up to stimulate and support area-based economic development initiatives throughout the Johannesburg metropolitan area, was established as the City's implementation authority charged with initial responsibility for the inner city.

For more information, contact the SA Revenue Service at 012 422 5046

Johannesburg News Agency