The African National Congress’s (ANC) Joburg region dismissed as untrue the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) Joburg City Council’s mayor elect Herman Mashaba’s accusation of maladministration of the city by the incumbent mayor Parks Tau who the ANC has nominated for re-election in the coming local government elections.
Mashaba criticised Tau and the ANC in this paper’s Mashaba spoils for election war with Tau, Week ending 1 July, saying Tau’s delayed nomination and a myriad of other problems faced by the city indicated he and the ANC lacked seriousness in creating jobs, bringing real change to the struggling residents and improving the city’s stuttering economy. He alleged that Tau’s lack of financial and managerial capacity cost the City billions of rands, with poor service delivery, and costly and unaccountable leadership. He also said that some ANC councillor nominees had criminal convictions or faced serious criminal charges, this in reference to Chris Mabunda of Alex and, of human rights abuse of shack dwellers.
In a statement, the ANC said Mashaba’s accusations were baseless and showed his lack of daily living experience of the City’s affairs, saying Tau received overwhelming support from branches for him to continue building Joburg as a World-Class African City that improved residents’ lives. It said the city’s prudent financial management in Tau’s tenure was recently upgraded by international rating agencies, which wouldn’t have happened if there was gross mismanagement.
The statement said its nominated councillors were chosen within stringent selection guidelines compiled by party members, and entire community participatory meetings to ensure best possible candidates were chosen. “They were subjected to a fingerprint inquiry with the South African Police Service to ensure they are credible public representatives.”
The statement said despite the current global economic downturn, Tau’s administration implemented the Expanded Public Works, Community Works, and the Jozi@work Programmes which employed and gave income to thousands of people, enabling them to also contribute to service delivery to the City. “The Jozi@Work Programme contracted 24 000 small companies and 1 000 co-operatives. The City’s prudent financial management enabled it to issue municipal and green bonds, supported by the private and financial services sectors, indicating the confidence investors have in its financial management. It has spent R30 billion of the city’s R100-billion budget commitment for the next ten years for among others, infrastructure development and maintenance, electricity supply, fixing water leakages and, the maintenance and expansion of roads.” It said criticism of the recently ended strike by Pikitup staff indicated Mashaba’s cluelessness of collective bargaining processes which reached a negotiated settlement between the City administration and workers’ leaders.
The statement also disputed accusations of council’s human rights abuse of informal settlements residents, saying Mashaba’s short visits to the settlements indicated his lack of knowledge of the daily experiences of the settlements residents. “Tau’s administration improved their access to electricity, water, sanitation and, upgraded 30 000 informal homes to proper houses and will, in the next five years, drastically change the residents’ lives.” It said Mashaba didn’t tell these residents that his party had voted against the city’s budget in the past three financial years which included services for residents.
Details: Jolidee Matongo 072 633 9956; 074 189 2658.
