Note to Editors: These remarks were delivered by ActionSA National Chairperson, Michael Beaumont at the launch of the ‘Mashaba Legacy Tour’
Dumelang, Molweni, Sanbonani, Goeie More, Good Morning;
It is great to be here in the streets of Johannesburg, not because the streets look good, but because a conversation has now begun about how Joburg will be fixed.
There can be no denying that Johannesburg has collapsed.
Electricity outages and water stoppages have become a daily occurrence in the lives of Joburg residents and, all the while, the city’s political leadership has no answer to this crisis.
The roads of Johannesburg have deteriorated across the City to the worst condition in the City’s history.
Potholes have now become permanent features in the daily commute of Joburg residents, as have the large holes dug by contractors that are never reinstated.
Joburg has never looked more filthy, more neglected, or more broken than it does today.
All of this is the product of the failure of political leadership inflicted upon the residents of Johannesburg.
On the one hand a governing coalition of the ANC, PA, EFF and others are misgoverning Johannesburg in a coalition that is more interested in patronage and corruption than delivering services.
On the other hand, this coalition only exists because of the failures of parties like the DA who have collapsed every alternative to the current failing coalition but profess, nonetheless, that they will rescue Joburg from the very crisis that they have created.
It is with this in mind that ActionSA begins this programme of events today. We will stand before the many sites of service delivery successes that form the unrivalled legacy of Joburg’s only successful Mayor, Herman Mashaba, to remind Joburg residents that it has been done before and will be done again.
Today, we start quite appropriately at the site of one of the many buildings that formed part of Herman Mashaba’s Inner City rejuvenation programme.
Mashaba looked at an Inner City that was decaying with crime and grime, just like Joburg is today, and saw it not for what it was but what it could be.
From this vision, Mashaba’s inner city rejuvenation programme was born.
Abandoned and hijacked buildings were raided and the criminality that had taken hold in these buildings was removed. Criminals were arrested and those in our country without papers were handed over to the Department of Home Affairs for deportation.
154 of these buildings were claimed back and handed over to the private sector with the requirement that rental levels be limited to ensure the inner city was a place for affordable accommodation.
This building behind me was just one of these buildings of a project that was going to deliver R32 billion in investment, 15 000 permanent construction-sector jobs and in excess of 20 000 affordable accommodation units.
This project did not deliver on these numbers because the DA collapsed its own coalition and handed the city over to the ANC. After that the project stalled because there was no prospect of corruption in buildings awarded to contractors based on their membership cards but on their ability to create jobs and build affordable accommodation.
Under Herman Mashaba the inner city was moving forward for the first time.
The Inner City did not stand alone in the impressive list of achievements under Herman Mashaba’s mayoralty in Johannesburg. The following stands as just some highlights of Mashaba’s record:
- The highest levels of resident satisfaction (74%) in the history of the city.
- Redirecting R2 billion from luxuries and wastage to service delivery infrastructure.
- Reducing power outages from 6.1 to 5.8 per annum (during peak load shedding).
- Reducing water leaks and bursts from 45 000 to 37 000 per annum.
- Achieving R17 billion in facilitated investment in 2018/19.
- Resurfacing 900km of bad roads (24% of all bad roads in the City).
- Building the largest electricity sub-station in the southern hemisphere within schedule and under budget.
- Extending the operating hours of 26 clinics, saving more than 500 lives with after-hour care.
- Starting 5 city-operated substance abuse facilities, the first in the city’s history.
- Procuring 7 mobile clinics to provide primary healthcare to informal settlements.
- Delivered 7000 RDP homes and 7500 title deeds and 3500 serviced stands.
- The largest expansion of the JMPD with 1500 new officers recruited.
- Establishing a specialized K9 Narcotics Unit.
- An anti-corruption unit that investigated over 6000 cases of corruption totaling more than R35 billion in transactions under investigation and effecting more than 900 arrests.
- Insourcing over 6000 security guards and cleaners and affording these workers the dignity of a proper wage and the city direct management of securing and cleaning its own infrastructure.
This list of achievements not only stands unrivalled but arose from a complicated 7-way minority coalition government and is a record that has never been rivalled by any of the many mayors from the ANC, DA or minority parties that have followed Mashaba.
ActionSA will be highlighting these and many more achievements that form part of Mashaba’s legacy.
We will do this to demonstrate to the residents of Joburg and give hope that their city was on the right track before and can be on the right track again. We will do this to remind them that only ActionSA offers a pathway from the years of failures they have endured. We will do this to show them that they do not need to look far to find a leader with a proven track record of fixing their city.
Mashaba Legacy Tour: A Leader With A Proven Record of Fixing a Broken City
Note to Editors: These remarks were delivered by ActionSA National Chairperson, Michael Beaumont at the launch of the ‘Mashaba Legacy Tour’
Dumelang, Molweni, Sanbonani, Goeie More, Good Morning;
It is great to be here in the streets of Johannesburg, not because the streets look good, but because a conversation has now begun about how Joburg will be fixed.
There can be no denying that Johannesburg has collapsed.
Electricity outages and water stoppages have become a daily occurrence in the lives of Joburg residents and, all the while, the city’s political leadership has no answer to this crisis.
The roads of Johannesburg have deteriorated across the City to the worst condition in the City’s history.
Potholes have now become permanent features in the daily commute of Joburg residents, as have the large holes dug by contractors that are never reinstated.
Joburg has never looked more filthy, more neglected, or more broken than it does today.
All of this is the product of the failure of political leadership inflicted upon the residents of Johannesburg.
On the one hand a governing coalition of the ANC, PA, EFF and others are misgoverning Johannesburg in a coalition that is more interested in patronage and corruption than delivering services.
On the other hand, this coalition only exists because of the failures of parties like the DA who have collapsed every alternative to the current failing coalition but profess, nonetheless, that they will rescue Joburg from the very crisis that they have created.
It is with this in mind that ActionSA begins this programme of events today. We will stand before the many sites of service delivery successes that form the unrivalled legacy of Joburg’s only successful Mayor, Herman Mashaba, to remind Joburg residents that it has been done before and will be done again.
Today, we start quite appropriately at the site of one of the many buildings that formed part of Herman Mashaba’s Inner City rejuvenation programme.
Mashaba looked at an Inner City that was decaying with crime and grime, just like Joburg is today, and saw it not for what it was but what it could be.
From this vision, Mashaba’s inner city rejuvenation programme was born.
Abandoned and hijacked buildings were raided and the criminality that had taken hold in these buildings was removed. Criminals were arrested and those in our country without papers were handed over to the Department of Home Affairs for deportation.
154 of these buildings were claimed back and handed over to the private sector with the requirement that rental levels be limited to ensure the inner city was a place for affordable accommodation.
This building behind me was just one of these buildings of a project that was going to deliver R32 billion in investment, 15 000 permanent construction-sector jobs and in excess of 20 000 affordable accommodation units.
This project did not deliver on these numbers because the DA collapsed its own coalition and handed the city over to the ANC. After that the project stalled because there was no prospect of corruption in buildings awarded to contractors based on their membership cards but on their ability to create jobs and build affordable accommodation.
Under Herman Mashaba the inner city was moving forward for the first time.
The Inner City did not stand alone in the impressive list of achievements under Herman Mashaba’s mayoralty in Johannesburg. The following stands as just some highlights of Mashaba’s record:
This list of achievements not only stands unrivalled but arose from a complicated 7-way minority coalition government and is a record that has never been rivalled by any of the many mayors from the ANC, DA or minority parties that have followed Mashaba.
ActionSA will be highlighting these and many more achievements that form part of Mashaba’s legacy.
We will do this to demonstrate to the residents of Joburg and give hope that their city was on the right track before and can be on the right track again. We will do this to remind them that only ActionSA offers a pathway from the years of failures they have endured. We will do this to show them that they do not need to look far to find a leader with a proven track record of fixing their city.