Accusations fly as Geoff Makhubo and Herman Mashaba clash over Joburg's finances

20 February 2020 - 07:20 By Anathi Madubela and Sisanda Aluta Mbolekwa
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Geoff Makhubo at a media briefing on Wednesday where he said the previous, DA-led, administration brought the city to near financial collapse.
Geoff Makhubo at a media briefing on Wednesday where he said the previous, DA-led, administration brought the city to near financial collapse.
Image: Sisanda Aluta Mbolekwa

The current and former mayors of SA's largest city were at each other's throats on Wednesday, as the Johannesburg metro's finances were thrust into the spotlight.

Mayor Geoff Makhubo was scathing in his assessment of the reign of his predecessor, Herman Mashaba, telling a press conference the DA-led administration brought the city to “near financial collapse and created an environment where maladministration bordering on fraud and corruption has thrived”.

The press briefing came after a budget lekgotla. Makhubo said he was reporting back on the status of service delivery in the city.

He accused the previous administration of “extending political patronage [and] employing friends and relatives at the expense of fixing potholes, sewer systems and refuse collection in the city”.

He also charged that under Mashaba's watch, the city's Emergency Management Services (EMS) department had only five fire engines to serve the 5-million residents of Johannesburg.

He said this despite R172m being paid upfront to a service provider to deliver more fire engines, adding that not a single fire engine had been delivered.

EMS would now need R330m to be able to procure one fire engine per station to adequately deal with fire threats in and around Johannesburg.

Makhubo said the Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) was in a critical condition. “The officers on duty are reported to be without critical equipment, such as radios, torches, handcuffs, uniforms and firearms, which are needed to operate.”

He went further, saying 500 new recruits who were “paraded” as having completed training had been deployed without completing training modules and were without basic requirements, such as badges and appointment cards.

Makhubo spoke out against the abuse of resources in the city, citing “serious instability, blatant illegal and serious political interference to suit the former mayor's political allies”.

“We are in trouble financially as a city as a result of the populist policies, and irresponsible and corrupt management of the city,” he said.

When it came to the insourcing of staff — a popular policy of Mashaba's that was praised across party lines, including by the EFF — Makhubo said the city required R320m to pay overtime due to security officers and cleaners added to the permanent staff from April 2018.

He added that the city had a shortfall of R400m to complete the insourcing process. “This is money away from service delivery to cover what we call political patronage, and it has a dire impact on service delivery,” he said.

Answering questions afterwards, Makhubo said trade-offs would be required to afford insourcing. “We are not going to get the money from elsewhere. Even the local government envelope from national government, the transfer, is tight so we are going to be making hard choices,” he said. “Our focus now is to turn around the finances of the city.”

Makhubo promised that he would pursue legal action and committed to bringing the services and finances of the city back to normality.

When TimesLIVE contacted Mashaba for a response to Makhubo's statement, the former mayor did not hold back. He said the claims were “part of a long pattern of crying wolf against the former coalition government”.

He then accused Makhubo of having links to the controversial Gupta family. “The fact that Geoff Makhubo is holding press conferences today rather than serving a 15-year sentence for corruption is an indictment of our criminal justice system,” said Mashaba, adding that Makhubo's relationship with the Guptas dated back to when he was the city's finance MMC.

“From day one of the coalition government, Geoff Makhubo was predicting the imminent financial collapse of the city, citing an impending inability to make the next salary run. This never transpired.

“His comments about insourcing are patently an effort to reverse the gains that were achieved by taking business away from the ANC-linked tenderpreneurs and insourcing the cleaners and security guards, providing them with the dignity that had been denied.”

Mashaba was also critical of Makhubo's comments regarding the JMPD.

“Makhubo’s claims about the JMPD recruits are clearly a continuation of his effort to purge the chief of police, David Tembe, capture the law-enforcement agencies and remove the specialised units that were waging wars against drug dealers instituted under the coalition government.”


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