The decline of this city of the past few years has brought a despair that needs a counterbalancing force and a heated political contest that places services on the front burner can only be a good thing.
While the trend has clearly been to campaign on what is wrong with ones competitors, allow me to offer a refreshing approach of just telling you why Herman Mashaba is the only choice for a voter who votes on service delivery and good governance. If you vote on other grounds, I regret I cannot help you and suggest there are many parties that will appeal to your race or ethnicity for your vote.
Back to the case for Herman Mashaba.
Herman Mashaba is the only candidate in this race that has a proven track record in this city and this matters in the world of politics because voters have understandably gotten to the point where they will trust what their leaders do more than the promises they make.
Mashaba served as Mayor of Joburg from 2016 – 2019 during the only time in which the city made real and tangible progress. You don’t have to take my word for it, the city’s own independent resident satisfaction survey in 2019 recorded the highest levels of positive sentiment towards the city in its history at 73% and climbing.
Immediately upon taking office he began a programme of redirecting what amounted to R2 billion annually from the wastages of international travel, conferences, self-promoting advertising and more to the delivery priorities of electricity, water, roads and housing service. As a direct consequence of this, the average number of power outages declined per household per year despite load shedding being prolific at the time. The water losses came down along with the number of bursts and leaks from 45 000 down to 37 000 per year because Mashaba while Mashaba replaced 200km of water pipes a year back then the current government only replaces 17km a year.
Mashaba got the Joburg Roads Agency working, resurfacing 900km of the city’s 4000km of bad roads in just 3 years while repairing the bridges which were in a state of imminent collapse. The metro police was expanded by 1500 new officers, increasing the force by nearly 50%, while specialized units and a ‘Boots on the Ground Policy’ gave the metro police a presence in the city.
The City’s first anti-corruption unit was established. A team of former scorpions, prosecutors and forensic accountants investigated 6000 cases of fraud, corruption and maladministration, affected over 900 arrests and more dismissals of implicated officials than were counted at the time.
The city’s approach to healthcare was revolutionary. Clinic operating hours were extended to provide life saving healthcare and medication after hours and over weekends, the city’s first drug rehabilitation centers were rolled out to treat the victims of drugs and the city procured mobile clinics to service communities in informal areas.
A-first-of-its-kind inner city rejuvenation project seized control of 158 bad buildings that had been hijacked or vacant. These buildings were taken by the city because their debts exceeded their value and handed over to the private sector for the construction of low-cost affordable housing, student accommodation and small business spaces.
Housing programmes were changed to no longer rely on the pedestrian rollout of 2000 RDP houses a year against a backlog of over 300 000, but rather for thousands of serviced stands to be provided to families for them to build their homes and for these communities to be upgraded to become new communities. The budget for electrifying informal settlements rose from R30 million to R300 million and it was Mashaba who, 23 years into democracy, elected Kliptown as the home of the Freedom Charter and more than 9000 title deeds were given to families who could then own their homes as an asset.
When Mashaba became Mayor the highest recorded levels of facilitated investment into the city was R4 billion in one year. In the year that Mashaba left office facilitated investment was recorded at R17 billion with jobs being created and small business hubs being set up providing support to small business owners in every region of the city.
And when Mashaba learnt that the city was paying tenderpreneurs R14 000 per security guard and the security guards were receiving R3000 per month and being mistreated, he insourced over 6 000 security guards and cleaners giving them the dignity of a decent wage at the expense of the tenderpreneurs and the city reduced its costs for security and cleaning.
Mashaba produced the first Memorandum of Understanding, binding in law, with trade unions that created a partnership with the city’s more than 30 000 employees because he recognized that getting the most out of these officials was the biggest change that could be delivered. The MoU committed the city to higher standards of care and responses to cases of mistreatment in exchange for increased stability, a partnership in service delivery and higher burdens to be met before a strike could be allowed.
Herman Mashaba achieved this, and so much more, in a complicated minority coalition government that was stable because he knew true stability comes from partnership and not paternalism.
I could quite literally go on and on but if I have not made my case to you by now I suspect no amount of facts and evidence will get the job done. If your vote is one based on the self-interest of service delivery for all, a metro police that fights lawlessness and a city that hunts down corruption than there is only one choice in this election. If you vote is based on other factors, you have far mor choices available. It is that simple.
There is Only One Choice for Joburg Mayor
The decline of this city of the past few years has brought a despair that needs a counterbalancing force and a heated political contest that places services on the front burner can only be a good thing.
While the trend has clearly been to campaign on what is wrong with ones competitors, allow me to offer a refreshing approach of just telling you why Herman Mashaba is the only choice for a voter who votes on service delivery and good governance. If you vote on other grounds, I regret I cannot help you and suggest there are many parties that will appeal to your race or ethnicity for your vote.
Back to the case for Herman Mashaba.
Herman Mashaba is the only candidate in this race that has a proven track record in this city and this matters in the world of politics because voters have understandably gotten to the point where they will trust what their leaders do more than the promises they make.
Mashaba served as Mayor of Joburg from 2016 – 2019 during the only time in which the city made real and tangible progress. You don’t have to take my word for it, the city’s own independent resident satisfaction survey in 2019 recorded the highest levels of positive sentiment towards the city in its history at 73% and climbing.
Immediately upon taking office he began a programme of redirecting what amounted to R2 billion annually from the wastages of international travel, conferences, self-promoting advertising and more to the delivery priorities of electricity, water, roads and housing service. As a direct consequence of this, the average number of power outages declined per household per year despite load shedding being prolific at the time. The water losses came down along with the number of bursts and leaks from 45 000 down to 37 000 per year because Mashaba while Mashaba replaced 200km of water pipes a year back then the current government only replaces 17km a year.
Mashaba got the Joburg Roads Agency working, resurfacing 900km of the city’s 4000km of bad roads in just 3 years while repairing the bridges which were in a state of imminent collapse. The metro police was expanded by 1500 new officers, increasing the force by nearly 50%, while specialized units and a ‘Boots on the Ground Policy’ gave the metro police a presence in the city.
The City’s first anti-corruption unit was established. A team of former scorpions, prosecutors and forensic accountants investigated 6000 cases of fraud, corruption and maladministration, affected over 900 arrests and more dismissals of implicated officials than were counted at the time.
The city’s approach to healthcare was revolutionary. Clinic operating hours were extended to provide life saving healthcare and medication after hours and over weekends, the city’s first drug rehabilitation centers were rolled out to treat the victims of drugs and the city procured mobile clinics to service communities in informal areas.
A-first-of-its-kind inner city rejuvenation project seized control of 158 bad buildings that had been hijacked or vacant. These buildings were taken by the city because their debts exceeded their value and handed over to the private sector for the construction of low-cost affordable housing, student accommodation and small business spaces.
Housing programmes were changed to no longer rely on the pedestrian rollout of 2000 RDP houses a year against a backlog of over 300 000, but rather for thousands of serviced stands to be provided to families for them to build their homes and for these communities to be upgraded to become new communities. The budget for electrifying informal settlements rose from R30 million to R300 million and it was Mashaba who, 23 years into democracy, elected Kliptown as the home of the Freedom Charter and more than 9000 title deeds were given to families who could then own their homes as an asset.
When Mashaba became Mayor the highest recorded levels of facilitated investment into the city was R4 billion in one year. In the year that Mashaba left office facilitated investment was recorded at R17 billion with jobs being created and small business hubs being set up providing support to small business owners in every region of the city.
And when Mashaba learnt that the city was paying tenderpreneurs R14 000 per security guard and the security guards were receiving R3000 per month and being mistreated, he insourced over 6 000 security guards and cleaners giving them the dignity of a decent wage at the expense of the tenderpreneurs and the city reduced its costs for security and cleaning.
Mashaba produced the first Memorandum of Understanding, binding in law, with trade unions that created a partnership with the city’s more than 30 000 employees because he recognized that getting the most out of these officials was the biggest change that could be delivered. The MoU committed the city to higher standards of care and responses to cases of mistreatment in exchange for increased stability, a partnership in service delivery and higher burdens to be met before a strike could be allowed.
Herman Mashaba achieved this, and so much more, in a complicated minority coalition government that was stable because he knew true stability comes from partnership and not paternalism.
I could quite literally go on and on but if I have not made my case to you by now I suspect no amount of facts and evidence will get the job done. If your vote is one based on the self-interest of service delivery for all, a metro police that fights lawlessness and a city that hunts down corruption than there is only one choice in this election. If you vote is based on other factors, you have far mor choices available. It is that simple.