Last roar for big guns

27 July 2016 - 09:26 By OLEBOGENG MOLATLHWA and DOMINIC MAHLANGU

Johannesburg's mayoral candidates brought out the big guns yesterday as they pushed to win the votes of the undecided. With just less than a week before the local government elections, DA mayoral candidate Herman Mashaba brought party leader Mmusi Maimane to the Johannesburg City Hall, where he held his final rally.Promising radical change, Mashaba wants to unseat the ANC's candidate and incumbent mayor Parks TauIn his address, Mashaba said city residents had an opportunity to vote for change and better service delivery. He lashed out at Tau and his administration, saying they were running Johannesburg "into the ground".Maimane told party supporters that it was important for the DA to win Johannesburg in order to spur economic growth throughout the country.The DA leader said it was important for voters to look beyond President Jacob Zuma's divisive statements and remember the teachings of former president Nelson Mandela.Mashaba told the crowd: "I know that you are sick and tired of broken promises and lies."I know that the ANC has humiliated and ignored far too many of you for far too long."He said his first duty as mayor would be to dismantle Pikitup and conduct a financial audit of all civil servants in the city.He said protests by Pikitup's workforce had disrupted the city's operations in recent years."Under my watch that will come to an end," he said."We need to determine who is skilled in what and where they are placed."We need to align our resources and grow the economy. When Joburg works, South Africa works," said Mashaba. Only a few streets away Tau hosted ANC Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa at the unveiling of a R200-million investment by software giant Microsoft that will see the City of Johannesburg train one million residents in digital literacy in the next five years.The mayor said 130000 young people had already been registered on the city's web portal, meaning some would be directed to the Microsoft initiative.With economic growth hovering at 0.1%, Ramaphosa urged towns and cities to go beyond providing municipal services and instead focus more on spurring local economic development.He said towns and cities that considered themselves smart "needed to go beyond providing water, electricity and sanitation, and improve their local economies to create jobs"...

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