Mashaba’s budget address to focus on Joburg’s ‘forgotten people’

There will be changes to the way service delivery was effected by the previous administration when Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba tables the metro’s 2016-17 adjusted budget on Thursday, six months after he came into office.

He did not elaborate because council rules prohibit him from giving details prior to the adoption of the budget by council, but Mashaba on Tuesday promised to look after the interests of the “forgotten people” of Johannesburg.

“This need for change is especially felt by those who have become part of Johannesburg’s forgotten people. These are people entirely excluded from the economy,” he said.

He cited the plight of residents who had been on the housing waiting list since the dawn of democracy. “These are residents who have been ignored, dismissed, pushed aside and forgotten by previous administrations, who put their own interests ahead of residents,” Mashaba said.

He expressed disappointment that the law restrained him from making more substantial changes.

“While this process is limited by National Treasury, which only permits minor adjustments to the budget, it represents the first chance the new administration will have to ring in some of the changes that are to come,” he said.

The metro would use the budget for service delivery to correct the failures caused by neglect and the inappropriate priorities of the previous ANC administration.

Mashaba said he would prioritise public safety and by-law enforcement, housing, healthcare provision, roads and traffic infrastructure, the anticorruption fight and responsive service delivery.

The shortcomings resulting from the limited adjustment budget would be covered when the new administration presented its own budget on March 30 to “kick-start an era of change in the City of Johannesburg”, he added.

“I am confident that the adjustment budget will provide residents with the opportunity to start seeing the change that they have mandated us to achieve.”

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