Joburg Mayor Herman Mashaba trapped in a time warp
They are grabbing onto anything possible, to try and discredit the good work being done by the Mayor and his administration.
The Sanco Johannesburg Regional Executive Committee notes with unutterable flabbergasts, the vendetta mode with which Mayor Herman Mashaba and by extension his mayoral committee, runs the City of Johannesburg administration.
His first 100 days in the office has been riddled with a lot of unenjoyable drama, from which emerged cancellation of City projects such as bicycle lanes – initiated by the previous administration – that are meant to create jobs, develop and empower small businesses.
We are perturbed to learn that Mr Mashaba intends to cancel yet another project: a bakery project called ‘Healthy Bread’ which is the mechanism directly responsive to triple challenges across the city. This again is another successful initiative which creates jobs, alleviates poverty and empowers small businesses through cooperatives. What gravely concerns us is that, it is only the black poor child at the receiving end of Mr Mashaba’s projects scraping spree, which seems to be sadly informed by the desperation to besmirch his predecessor just to prove his capacity to himself and his detractors, all at the expense of Johannesburg residents. We wonder in whose interest and instructions are Mr Mashaba’s antics. This is in direct contradiction of point 2 of his Johannesburg 10 Point Plan. Unsurprisingly all the projects he is scrapping and or intend to scrap are pro poor, being a self-proclaimed capitalist he is.
His recent illegal immigrants and sexism utterances evidently exposes some element of recklessness and degree of ignorance on his part and a question on his state of readiness to run this diverse city with the biggest population and economy. We have not forgotten his deviation from his electioneering commitment of removing e-tolls in Johannesburg. As the historic leader of the civil society which represents majority of Johannesburg residents, we wish to caution and advise Mr Mashaba to suspend his projects cancellation bandwagon, gives himself time to learn local governance and try to build on and or improve what he inherited and most importantly devote his ample energy on implementation of his 10 Point Plan. We are directly affected by his intended motives and call upon him to familiarise himself with what we believe in, participatory democracy. He can also learn many things from his predecessor. Sanco Joburg will convene a meeting with the Mayor to discuss all the matters of interest to the Joburg community.
We indeed congratulate Mr Parks ‘Humble’ Tau on his new responsibilities at SALGA and UCLG.
Simphiwe Hlafa, Sanco Greater JHB
Clr Mashaba’s office response
Mayor Mashaba dismisses the remarks made by the South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco) as laughable.
After going on the offensive against Mayor Mashaba, the closing line of Sanco’s statement says it all: “We indeed congratulate Mr Parks ‘Humble’ Tau on his new responsibilities at SALGA and UCLG.” The question that needs to be asked is: how can a former mayor who spent R153 million of public money on self-promoting advertising over a two year period, be depicted as ‘humble’?
Criticising the mayor on the cancellation of certain vanity projects and hailing former Mayor Parks Tau as ‘humble’, indicates just how out of touch Sanco is with the people of Johannesburg. Sanco, a “non-political organisation with a political interest” has, by way of these claims, clearly indicated blind loyalty to the ANC.
Mayor Mashaba stands by his decision to cancel certain vanity projects, that cost the City R270 million per year. They include mushroom farms, paper produced from stone and solar powered bakeries, using imported mango flour from South America. At best, they are speculative investments by the City in projects created by the City, for a narrow group of beneficiaries defined by the City. They were designed to permit the former mayor to boast about job creation, while the ranks of the unemployed swelled by 190 000 people during his term in office.
The City rightly did away with these wasteful, speculative investment projects and will divert these resources to focus on our core mandate. Our focus can’t be on investing in projects where no business would invest. Our focus must be to incubate small businesses and fast-track their development into employers of our residents.
It is time for this City to focus on getting the basics of local government right, in terms of the economic and service conditions that will bring about economic growth, job creation and good governance.
Allegations of sexism against Mayor Mashaba are unfounded. It must be seen for what it is: pure political opportunism from a party and its affiliates that can’t accept their new role in opposition. They are grabbing onto anything possible, to try and discredit the good work being done by the Mayor and his administration.
The new administration has started a skills audit in the City, which will make sure that all employees in senior positions hold the requisite skills to fulfil their job requirements. It doesn’t matter whether you are a man or a woman – all that matters is we have a professional public service able to serve the best interests of all our residents.
With regard to comments on illegal immigrants, it’s unfortunate that Mayor Herman Mashaba’s comments are being misinterpreted, without giving substantive quotes or any background to what the Mayor was addressing. Mayor Mashaba was discussing his plans to revitalise the inner city of Jo’burg and take it back from criminal elements. It was officially reported in October that the inner city is the most dangerous and crime ridden area of Johannesburg. The Mayor was stating that it doesn’t matter whether you are from South Africa or any other country, “a criminal is a criminal” and they must be dealt with.
If we are to turn around the inner city, it’s vital that the rule of law is respected. We can’t accept lawlessness in our city and any criminal, whether a South African national or a foreign national, must be apprehended. To say that we must keep quiet about illegal immigrants, is to say we must ignore the rule of law and that is simply unacceptable. It’s essential that national government cleans up its act and ensures that there’s quick and efficient processing of asylum seekers and refugees. This would protect those who wish to legitimately enter our country from criminal elements, including slum lords and drug traffickers – who abuse their desperation and are able to evade the law.
Sanco should focus on real issues affecting our people, rather than doing the dirty work for a political party that’s been rejected by the residents of Jo’burg after years of arrogant indifference.
Tony Taverna-Turisan; Director: Mayoral Communications
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