JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA FEBRUARY 28: City of Johannesburg Executive Mayor; Herman Mashaba addresses the crowd during a march to Gauteng Premier David Makhuras office on February 28, 2017 in Johannesburg, South Africa. The march is in solidarity with families of more than 100 psychiatry patients who died in the province recently. (Photo by Gallo Images / The Times / Alon Skuy)
60% of Jozi’s budget to go to the poor. Mashaba
Mashaba’s on the move.
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA FEBRUARY 28: City of Johannesburg Executive Mayor; Herman Mashaba addresses the crowd during a march to Gauteng Premier David Makhuras office on February 28, 2017 in Johannesburg, South Africa. The march is in solidarity with families of more than 100 psychiatry patients who died in the province recently. (Photo by Gallo Images / The Times / Alon Skuy)
The DA’s Johannesburg mayor hasn’t exactly had the easiest nine months in office, what with his comments about illegal immigrants getting him some heat; and the ANC’s sustained pressure on the man who took the City of Gold from them.
Watch: DA’s Mashaba relentless on illegal immigrant issue, calls on gov to step in
That said, Herman Mashaba’s been everything but lazy when it comes to bringing about reforms in Africa’s economic powerhouse.
While delivering his ‘State of the City’ address on Wednesday, the mayor outlined his plans to have at least 60% of Johannesburg’s budget allocated to projects aimed specifically at the city’s poorest.
Since taking office in August 2016, Mashaba’s shaken up the previously ANC-controlled City of Johannesburg administration with a quintessentially DA frugality, often lamenting the ANC’s wasteful expenditure and history of poor service delivery in the city.
Read: “We’ve exposed R10bn worth of corruption.” Mashaba
In his address, the mayor pointed out that, since taking control of Johannesburg, the DA has implemented an adjusted budget which has seen R546 million dedicated tto electrifying incomplete low-cost housing projects and a further R41 million has been funnelled into electrifying informal settlements.
“We achieved the allocation of R51 million for the purpose of additional busses for Metrobus, with a further R5 million for the refurbishment of current fleet to ease the burden of people getting around our city,” Mashaba said, adding that R49 million has gone to Pikitup in order to speed up the cleaning of the Jozi inner city precinct.
