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The ANC's 19 reasons why Joburg mayor should go

Herman Mashaba
Herman Mashaba
Image: ARNOLD PRONTO

The African National Congress has finally given its reasons why Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba must go.

The Johannesburg council will on Thursday vote on a motion of no confidence against Mashaba and speaker Vasco da Gama. The motion was brought by the ANC‚ which claims Mashaba is "reversing the gains" that it made while it was running the country’s economic capital.

Here is the list released by the ANC‚ just hours before the vote: Ø The majority of Johannesburg residents were excluded in the city’s most critical public participation platform – the Integrated Development Plan consultation process‚ which informs the city’s budget and spending in line with the residents’ expressed service delivery needs

  •  Job creation‚ access to basic services and financial stability are an illusion under the DA-EFF coalition led by Mashaba‚ with 8 000 jobs lost and 200 000 youth deprived of skills training‚ jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities
  •  Promises to electrify four informal settlements did not materialise
  •  The number of low-cost houses earmarked for poor residents has been significantly reduced
  •  For the past 12 months Mashaba’s administration failed to increase access to basic water for residents in informal settlements
  •  Sanitation programmes have not been fully implemented as planned by Mashaba’s administration Ø The DA’s approach of increasing the repair and maintenance budget has yielded no results. Instead residents‚ particularly in the townships‚ are left on their own to deal with potholes‚ a dirty city‚ dysfunctional traffic lights and unscheduled power cuts
  •  The numbers of water pipe bursts increased in 2016 to 38 058 and these numbers continued to increase in 2017 and are standing at 45 177‚ as evidenced by the recent water outages that affected the northern and eastern areas of the City
  •  Electrification programmes were cancelled in Eldorado Park‚ Nancefield‚ Roosevelt‚ Kloofendal‚ Wilro Park‚ Milnerton‚ Mondeor‚ Hopefield and Waterfall due to lack of understanding of engineering and municipal supply chain processes
  •  In the last four months only‚ the DA-led city government has borrowed R1.1-billion from the Debt Redemption Fund (Sinking Fund) which was established by the ANC-led administration to repay loans and bonds on their respective due dates
  •  The borrowing of R1.1-billion from the Sinking Fund in June 2017 is a breach of the promise the city made to bond investors and banks that the Sinking Fund will be solely used to repay the bonds and loans as they fall due
  •  Within the next eight months the city must repay more than R2.7-billion to bond investors and other financial institutions
  •  The DA-led administration has also borrowed short-term funding to the tune of R3-billion in July 2017 from the Development Bank of South Africa‚ only a few days after the new financial year had commenced
  • In 2017/18 the budget is inflated by R1-billion
  •  The city currently owes investors loans and bonds of R20-billion and should investors demand immediate settlement of all loans and bonds‚ the city will be bankrupt as it cannot afford to settle all debts given its perilous cash flow position
  •  The reign of terror is supplemented with irregular and irrational appointments that are deepening the crisis of fear as a result creating instability among the 33 000 employees of the city
  • Up to 377 experienced public servants have either been purged or left in limbo and the city has no capacity to investigate their cases
  •  The courts made judgments on the unfair process of suspending the Johannesburg Ombudsman‚ however Mashaba refuses to accept this outcome and continues spending tax payers’ money in a bid to overturn the judgments
  •  Currently more than 70% of the city’s workforce is unproductive because they are awaiting the outcome of a skills audit process that is expected to inform them where they will be best placed.

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