The City of Johannesburg Democratic Alliance’s (DA) mayoral candidate, Herman Mashaba, has vowed to keep clinics open in Johannesburg for 24 hours a day if he is elected to run the city.
This he vowed as he addressed a group of residents who mobbed him during his walkabout campaign in the oldest, and probably poorest, township in the country on 10 May in Ext 7 in far Eastbank.
He arrived in far Eastbank after being denied entry into the Madala Hostel by Inkatha Freedom Party-aligned indunas (otherwise known as advisors or commanders of a group of people).
Mashaba and his DA entourage wanted to conduct a report-back meeting with the residents of the Madala Hostel after the DA took the City of Johannesburg to the Human Rights Commission for violating the human rights of the dwellers through a lack of service delivery.
The City allegedly neglected the residents by not providing electricity, water and fixing broken sewerage pipes which have spilled human waste, resulting in an unbearable stench hovering over the hostel.
Mashaba could not deliver his feedback, but threatened to take the Inkatha Freedom Party to the Independent Electoral Commission for denying them the right to campaign inside the hostel.
In Ext 7, Mashaba was mobbed by well-wishers and told them he would open all the clinics in the whole of Johannesburg for 24 hours a day. “I don’t know why they don’t open these clinics for 24 hours. People don’t ask to fall sick at a certain particular time.
“What happens when you fall sick in the middle of the night and at that time all the clinics are closed. Are you being asked to die in your home with no medical care?”
The multimillionaire Black Like Me cosmetic business tycoon said he would use Metro police to fight the rampant crime in Alexandra and other parts of the metropole.
“As an entity of the City, this is the only policing arm we would have at our disposal to use in our crime-fighting initiatives and we would ensure Metro police is used effectively to combat crime,” Mashaba said.
