The contest for the mayoral seat of Joburg, the country’s economic hub, is expected to heat up between the African National Congress (ANC) and the Democratic Alliance (DA) in the upcoming local government elections.
This after the ANC nominated incumbent City Mayor Parks Tau as its candidate long after the DA had nominated Herman Mashaba as theirs. Mashaba has been campaigning for months for the elections which pundits, including President Jacob Zuma, have predicted will be a bruising war equal to the historic 1994 first national democratic elections.
Click here to read: ANC responds to Mashaba’s criticism of Tau
The public expects an ANC retaliation against Mashaba, who has accused Tau and the ANC of a five-year reign of poor service delivery and costly and unaccountable leadership.
In a statement, Mashaba’s said Tau’s nomination highlighted the moral and ethical decay of the ANC, a once-great liberation movement. He accused Tau’s administration of misusing public funds, saying it signalled the ANC’s lack of seriousness in creating jobs, bringing real change to struggling residents and improving the city’s economy.
“[Tau’s] delayed selection indicates his party’s lack of a clear mandate on his choice weeks before the election,” said Mashaba.
“Joburg residents deserve better than another five years of broken promises and financial mismanagement under his administration.”
He added that Tau’s possible return should concern residents, with the ANC councillors’ list allegedly including names of convicted criminals and people facing serious criminal charges. This he said in reference to Alex councillor Chris Mabunda who is said to be facing murder charges for an alleged assault and subsequent death of two people in Alexandra.
He said Tau had presided over the City’s alleged financial mismanagement said to have exceeded R5-billion of unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure, and for failing to investigate and recover anything from those found liable. He added that under Tau’s watch City Power had a R68-billion electricity infrastructure backlog, a loss of 19 percent or R2.3-billion worth of electricity in the last financial year, and nearly R1-billion of electricity lost, allegedly due to the poor maintenance of electricity infrastructure.
Mashaba added that there had been mass job losses with one in three or 869 000 residents unemployed, and 66 000 joining the unemployed ranks in the first quarter of This year. “This creates hopelessness, increased crime and drug abuse among the city’s youth,” he said.
The DA mayoral canditate said there had been R850-million worth of water lost to leaks last year, and many communities still had no access to clean, running water. He added that a survey by Statistics SA stated that only seven percent of the city’s indigent households had access to clean water.
He further accused the City of failing to provide proper service delivery to 180 informal settlements, which constituted a violation of human rights. This resulted in a complaint to the SA Human Rights Commission by the DA.
Mashaba’s vision is to create thousands of jobs, stop corruption, increase public infrastructure spending, and ensure service delivery to all residents.
Details: Nkele Molapo 072 041 4842.
