Herman Mashaba on 3 May, nine months after the 2016 municipal elections, gave his first State of the City Address (Soca) as the City of Johannesburg’s mayor and revealed that R10 billion had been lost to corruption during the previous administration.
This was disclosed in Mashaba’s 10-point plan for the economic hub of South Africa which he drafted along with senior administration, coalition leadership, and although not a coalition partner, Mashaba made clear, the Economic Freedom Fighters’ leadership.
“I can confirm that over 300 cases are currently being investigated and the total monetary value alleged to be lost or misused as a result of fraud and corruption is over R10 billion,” he said.
Since the appointment of Shadrack Sibiya to the Anti-Corruption Unit last year, 30 City employees have been arrested, 91 suspended and three senior officials resigned.
Ensuring corruption is public enemy number one is part of the 10-point plan.
Corruption within the capacity support agent level, essentially the middle man between the City and workers, was the reason cited by Mashaba for scrapping the Jozi@Work programme that provided short term work opportunities.
This decision was met with anger by the African National Congress who, along with the EFF, asked what would happen to the 8 000 people employed by the programme.
Read: Jozi@Work ‘dead and buried’ despite doubtful opposition
The programme was scrapped with the aim of achieving a minimum of five per cent annual economic growth.
“This programme was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. In principle it was good, but like so many good principles, the Jozi@Work programme had a dark underworld,” he said.
Mashaba also vowed to make the tender process open and transparent, saying that corrupt parties were happy with the closed tender process. Earlier this year, City Council voted to amend the Supply Chain Management Policy that effected the open tender process.
“Bid adjudication meetings are now held in rooms open to the public, media and all interested parties,” concluded Mashaba.
The Soca debate will take place on 5 May.
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