‘Zille’s a walkover for me,’ says Mashaba

Another “H” factor has entered the race in the battle for the soul of the country’s richest metro municipality, Johannesburg.

This time it’s ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba, who on Saturday was unveiled — at a rally in Orlando East, Soweto — as his party’s mayoral candidate for the city in municipal elections expected to take place later this year.

The other “H” seeking control of Joburg is DA strongwoman Helen Zille, who was endorsed as her party’s mayoral candidate last year.

The ANC, for its part, has yet to announce who will go toe-to-toe with the DA and ActionSA heavyweights.

An emboldened Mashaba told the Sunday Times yesterday that Zille posed no threat to his prospects, dismissing her as “a walkover”.

“Helen Zille, as far as I’m concerned, is a walkover, honestly. To compete with someone who engineered my removal with the ANC because I wasn’t cutting grass in Sandton where I lived — and looking at the mess she left in black communities in the Western Cape — she’s a walkover for me,” he said.

Mashaba, who previously served as Joburg mayor under the DA between 2016 and 2019, told supporters he was availing himself as the candidate to finish what he started before quitting the DA to form his own party.

The ActionSA leader beat other prominent figures in his party — such as national chair Michael Beaumont and MP Lerato Ngobeni — to the candidacy through a closed selection process. He said he was put under pressure by party structures to make himself available for a second bite at the Joburg cherry.

“As the senate, when we looked at the chances of anyone taking over the city of Joburg, the entire senate and civil society put me under pressure.”

As the senate, when we looked at the chances of anyone taking over the city of Joburg, the entire senate and civil society put me under pressure.

The businessman-turned-politician quit the DA amid high drama in 2019 in protest against the removal of then party leader Mmusi Maimane and the return of Zille to the party’s higher echelons.

However, he said on Saturday that “the door would not be shut on the DA” or any party should there be a need to form a coalition government after this year’s election — provided they agreed on servicing poor communities, tackling corruption, creating jobs and clamping down on undocumented foreign nationals.

Mashaba said that, if elected to his former position, he would implement an “Operation Fix Joburg” plan anchored on five priorities.

He said that under his leadership, controversial Joburg entities such as City Power and Johannesburg Water would cease to exist in their current form, arguing they had become cesspools of corruption plagued by incompetence. They would be placed under the direct control of the city’s administration or municipal manager.

“We must also confront the structures that enable corruption, mismanagement and waste,” he said. “If not all, then the majority of city-owned entities such as City Power and Joburg Water will be collapsed back into the core administration of the city.

“These entities have become unnecessary layers of bureaucracy. They have created space for corruption and for cadres. That will end. Functions will be consolidated. Oversight will be centralised. Accountability will be direct. Each will be led by a competent executive reporting to the city manager. No more boards for cadres.”

Mashaba insisted that this would not overburden the city administration, saying it was unnecessary for a mayor to go through a board whenever an entity faced governance or service delivery problems.

“We must collapse them into the city so we don’t have this bureaucratic hurdle where, every time there’s a problem, I must go through a board. If there’s corruption, I must go through a board,” he said.

“The money that is going towards paying these directors is money the city needs for the provision of services. I can assure you those boards don’t add value for residents.”

He said that under his leadership, some tenders for cleaning and other municipal services would be scrapped to focus on making in-house workers permanent employees.

“As a matter of urgency, we will accelerate the insourcing of key municipal services. Cleaners and security personnel deserve the dignity of permanent employment with fair conditions. The era of tenderpreneurs extracting profit from basic services will come to an end.”