Graft driving away billions in investments, says Mayor Mashaba

04 May 2017

 

Investors were waiting on the sidelines to inject about R20-billion into the Johannesburg economy, Executive Mayor Cllr Herman told a radio show on Wednesday May 3.

 

Speaking to Radio 702’s afternoon drive show host, Redi Tlhabi, shortly after delivering his maiden State of the City Address (SOCA), Mayor Mashaba said, however, that the investors were discouraged from ploughing their money into the city by what he called “institutionalised corruption, rampant crime and grime in the inner city”.

He said that was the reason his administration had declared corruption as public enemy No 1.

The City has committed itself to achieving 5% economic growth by at least 5% by 2021. “I appointed General Shadrack Sibiya to deal with this cancer of corruption. To date there are results to this exercise. A number of the City’s employees have been suspended or arrested.

“Others have resigned as a result. We have also laid a complaint with the Independent Police Investigations Directorate against former Hawks boss General Berning Ntlemeza for trying to stop our fight against corruption,” he said.

In another interview on SABC2’s Morning Live with Lee-Ann Manas on Thursday May 4, Mayor Mashaba said his speech on Wednesday was the “true State of the City Address ever since the dawn of democracy”. He said the previous SOCAs were not honest and painted a wrong picture of the city.

“Previous administrations told us that Johannesburg was a world-class city, a clean city, a crime-free city and a city that was investor-friendly. We know that was not true. That was not honest. That was just politics. A gamble. A dangerous game,” Mayor Mashaba said.

“The people of Johannesburg should know the truth about their city. And the truth has always been there in front of their eyes. More than half of the residents of our city have at one point or another experienced crime or been a victim of crime.

“Most of our residents are daily protesting and toyi-toying because of the lack of service delivery. About 30% of our residents are unemployed and poor. Our roads are in a poor state with lots of potholes. Our traffic lights are malfunctioning. Most of our neighbourhoods have no roads or roads not tarred,” he said.

Mayor Mashaba said Johannesburg had decayed, was dirty and had a stink that could make an investor puke.

“The city has about 180 informal settlements, most of which are without electricity, water, tarred roads, schools and clinics. You cannot say this is a world-class city when residents have no addresses. That can’t be,” Mayor Mashaba said.

He said, however, that his administration had a plan to turn the tide around. “We will work towards growing the economy of our city by 5%. We will fight corruption and crime. We will improve the lives of the poor people of our city. We will put dignity back to our people. And we will appoint qualified and competent people to drive our agenda,” he said.