Note To Editor – These remarks were delivered by ActionSA National Chairperson, Michael Beaumont at the 2nd event of the ‘Mashaba Legacy Tour’
Dumelang, Molweni, Sanbonani, Goeie More, Good Morning;
It is great to be in the streets of Kliptown, Johannesburg, talking about the future of this City.
But we need to be clear that service delivery in Joburg has collapsed after Herman Mashaba’s term of office finished.
Governments failed by the ANC, DA and micro parties like Al Jama-ah have come and gone in a revolving door of no less than seven ineffective Mayors who have presided over the collapse of Joburg.
Only one Mayor in recent years has ever shown the residents of Joburg real, positive change that improved their lives – and that was Herman Mashaba.
This is precisely why ActionSA has launched this Mashaba Legacy Tour campaign, because the people of Joburg need the hope that comes from knowing their city was working before and can work again.
Today I stand in Kliptown in Soweto. The home of the Freedom Charter.
When Herman Mashaba became Mayor of Joburg we found a court order from 2011. The community of Kliptown Extension 11 had approached the courts, after many years of being ignored, and court ordered that the City must deliver electricity.
It took Herman Mashaba less than one year to do what no ANC government had ever bothered to do before, and that is to give electricity to the home of the Freedom Charter.
And it didn’t stop there.
Herman Mashaba inherited a City that had a housing backlog of over 300 000 applicants. The City Mashaba inherited responded to this crisis by delivering only 2000 houses per year and spending more on international travel than on electrifying informal settlements.
And quite appropriately, the money to fund this electrification came from cancelling a corrupt contract given illegally to a Zimbabwean national who took the money and did not do the work.
I remember at the switching on event for that community, Mashaba was invited into the home of an old lady who had bought an electric kettle and wanted to have a cup of tea with the man who electrified her community.
Mashaba’s legacy in addressing the housing crisis in Joburg stands unrivalled.
During his three years in office, Mashaba electrified 20 informal settlements. This gave electricity to 10 000 homes that had never had electricity before.
Mashaba delivered over 11 000 toilets to communities that had lived without the dignity of proper sanitation.
More than 7000 new RDP houses were built, 7500 title deeds were issued and 3500 serviced stands were issued to South Africans to build their own homes.
Mashaba’s Inner City project spoke to the missing middle of the housing market – people who could not afford a mortgage but did not qualify for RDP housing. For these Joburg citizens Mashaba’s Inner City Project would deliver 25 000 low-cost, affordable rentals for families to be close to work opportunities.
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 Lit Up Joburg, ActionSA Can Do It Again
Note To Editor – These remarks were delivered by ActionSA National Chairperson, Michael Beaumont at the 2nd event of the ‘Mashaba Legacy Tour’
Dumelang, Molweni, Sanbonani, Goeie More, Good Morning;
It is great to be in the streets of Kliptown, Johannesburg, talking about the future of this City.
But we need to be clear that service delivery in Joburg has collapsed after Herman Mashaba’s term of office finished.
Governments failed by the ANC, DA and micro parties like Al Jama-ah have come and gone in a revolving door of no less than seven ineffective Mayors who have presided over the collapse of Joburg.
Only one Mayor in recent years has ever shown the residents of Joburg real, positive change that improved their lives – and that was Herman Mashaba.
This is precisely why ActionSA has launched this Mashaba Legacy Tour campaign, because the people of Joburg need the hope that comes from knowing their city was working before and can work again.
Today I stand in Kliptown in Soweto. The home of the Freedom Charter.
When Herman Mashaba became Mayor of Joburg we found a court order from 2011. The community of Kliptown Extension 11 had approached the courts, after many years of being ignored, and court ordered that the City must deliver electricity.
It took Herman Mashaba less than one year to do what no ANC government had ever bothered to do before, and that is to give electricity to the home of the Freedom Charter.
And it didn’t stop there.
Herman Mashaba inherited a City that had a housing backlog of over 300 000 applicants. The City Mashaba inherited responded to this crisis by delivering only 2000 houses per year and spending more on international travel than on electrifying informal settlements.
And quite appropriately, the money to fund this electrification came from cancelling a corrupt contract given illegally to a Zimbabwean national who took the money and did not do the work.
I remember at the switching on event for that community, Mashaba was invited into the home of an old lady who had bought an electric kettle and wanted to have a cup of tea with the man who electrified her community.
Mashaba’s legacy in addressing the housing crisis in Joburg stands unrivalled.
During his three years in office, Mashaba electrified 20 informal settlements. This gave electricity to 10 000 homes that had never had electricity before.
Mashaba delivered over 11 000 toilets to communities that had lived without the dignity of proper sanitation.
More than 7000 new RDP houses were built, 7500 title deeds were issued and 3500 serviced stands were issued to South Africans to build their own homes.
Mashaba’s Inner City project spoke to the missing middle of the housing market – people who could not afford a mortgage but did not qualify for RDP housing. For these Joburg citizens Mashaba’s Inner City Project would deliver 25 000 low-cost, affordable rentals for families to be close to work opportunities.
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.