The Democratic Alliance party leader, Mmusi Maimane, has pinned his hopes on party member Herman Mashaba to make Joburg a truly African city if Mashaba wins the mayoral position.
Maimane said this in Alexandra during the party’s launch of its plans to revive the city of Johannesburg.
He said Mashaba was a man of integrity and intellect, with immense knowledge of the business sector which he will use to stimulate and create a conducive environment for businesses and small business to thrive and create jobs.
“This will help to restore the dignity of residents through work and improved incomes and make the City more compassionate to its residents when unemployment levels are reduced,” Maimane said.
The City, he said, had stagnated with the end of Nelson Mandela’s presidency after which, he claimed, unemployment rose, and poor service delivery and bad governance became the norm. This through an alleged culture of cronyism and self-enrichment by civil servants who felt more beholden to the party rather than the residents who employed and paid them through tax revenue.
“This has made the city the most unequal in the country with both national and local governments engaged in corrupt practices that perpetuate past imbalances and denied services to the poor,” he said.
Maimane said their party’s plan could make Joburg comparable to Cape Town – which the DA governs and which has an unemployment rate said to be below 20 percent. He said their success in governance was attested by the party’s governing in eight of the 10 best-run municipalities in the country while the majority of the allegedly worst-run cities were governed by the majority party.
He said it was in their DNA to institute and sustain good responsive and accountable governance for residents. This included a visionary leadership, conducive environment for investment and job creation, a courteous and ethical public service which is proud of serving the public and the use of an open tender system to eliminate corruption.
