Envoys warn of Joburg investor worries amid ‘ANC chaos’ – Mashaba

Joburg mayor Herman Mashaba says some foreign diplomats in South Africa are concerned about attempts to destabilise Johannesburg, the economic hub of South Africa, which did not auger well for investment.

Mashaba blamed President Cyril Ramaphosa and the entire national ANC leadership for allowing the party to cause chaos in the Johannesburg metro.

He said the diplomats had told him the implications of the current state of affairs were that the entire SA economy would be destabilised, because when Johannesburg’s economy was under pressure, it affected the whole country.

The embassies were concerned that for the past several years the city had been politically stable – until the ANC’s no-confidence motion came out of the blue. This, they believed, could undo all the gains achieved, including cooperation among political parties in the council.

He lambasted the ANC in Johannesburg and their councillors for “unnecessary” no-confidence motions aimed at unseating him, instead of concentrating on service delivery to the people.

Mashaba said that the ANC’s no-confidence motion meant that for three weeks the five million residents of Johannesburg had to live with the uncertainty of who would lead their city while 35,000 city employees experienced the same uncertainty.

Mashaba said some embassies had called him to express their disquiet.

“Johannesburg is the economic hub of the country, how can President Ramaphosa and the ANC leadership allow this country to be destabilised in this way when we are busy trying to rejuvenate the inner city and secure the jobs of more than 35,000 employees in our system.

“It shows there is no thinking, even at national level, in the ANC.

“When this motion came from the Johannesburg ANC, I heard nothing from the top leadership to say they were concerned about it. Why are they not concerned about this,” Mashaba asked.

The ANC’s Johannesburg regional spokesperson, Jolidee Matongo, hit back at Mashaba, saying no embassies had approached the ANC to complain.

Matongo said if ambassadors were concerned with the ANC’s motion of no confidence, they should approach the party to get clarity. He said such motions were part of democratic processes and the ANC would never deliberately disrupt the council.

“We are not concerned, no matter who says what because we have done nothing wrong as the ANC.”

Mashaba said the ANC had given no reason for withdrawing their motion because they knew they did not have the numbers to pass it.

“The ANC’s actions amount to recklessly playing with the lives of our residents and employees,” he added.

He described the ANC motion as a smokescreen to get access to power which would enable them to loot municipal resources again.

The ANC’s no-confidence motions had been “cut and paste” for the past three years, with the party repeatedly purporting that the DA-led council did not have enough funds even to pay salaries, he added.

He said the City of Joburg was not on the brink of bankruptcy and the unaudited statement showed the city was in a good financial state.

Matongo said this was the second and not the third motion against Mashaba and that the party was confident about it.

“Our motion still stands. We withdrew it only for one reason – to finalise certain matters with our partners in the council, including how we can restructure the new government that will be led by the ANC.”

– ericn@citizen.co.za

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