In his Christmas message to the residents of the City of Johannesburg, executive mayor Herman Mashaba wrote:
“Dear City of Johannesburg residents, I greet you all in the name of change. This year has been quite an eventful one. More than anything else, 2018 has also been an incredibly bittersweet year.
“I would, therefore, like to begin my annual Christmas message by taking a brief moment to once again pay a special tribute to our officers in the JMPD for continuing to serve with dedication and valour in the face of the constant threat to life and limb that their jobs present daily.
“I also take this moment to extend a special thank you to our servicemen and women in the Emergency Management Services, in particular, our firefighters who showed tremendous bravery and courage to put out the Bank of Lisbon building fire in September.
“Despite the economic climate in which we find ourselves as a country, the City of Johannesburg’s job increase is backed by a record R8.7-billion in facilitated external investment in 2017/18.
“Earlier this year, the city launched Operation Buya Mthetho, which is a multi-departmental initiative aimed at enforcing by-laws and bringing back the rule of law to the City of Johannesburg.
“This operation is conducted on a daily basis, as a ward-based raid initiative. Through Operation Buya Mthetho, we have already collected more than R700-million from some of the more than 2 000 businesses whose accounts were connected to our services illegally and abused our by-laws.
“These achievements, and others which I, unfortunately, could not mention, point to a city that is working. This should be comforting to you, our residents, to know that as you embark on your different journeys for the Christmas holidays, you will come back to a city that is slowly but surely being restored to its former glory. I wish all of you a merry Christmas.”
