The dust is yet to settle following an unlawful power-grab by the ANC. Now is a time when ActionSA in Johannesburg must regroup and continue to serve the residents of Johannesburg.

We do so out of the realisation that the residents of Johannesburg need ActionSA to provide an alternative to failed government and a failed coalition.

Our 9 months in government – 6 of which we had to do with an ANC budget - have been fruitful.

Former MMC David Tembe deployed more than 1 000 metro police officers in the Inner City to bring stability and safety there, followed by the deployment of additional officers in under-served regions. The re-introduction of Operation Buya Mthetho – a key feature of the public safety initiative spearheaded by ActionSA President, Herman Mashaba when he was Executive Mayor.

Buya Mthetho galvanised by-law enforcement and gave impetus to the introduction of the City’s Informal Trading Policy which had been stalled for years by ANC inaction was passed in Council in April 2022. 

Joburgers are now emboldened to claim informal trading as an important economic space from which to rebuild their lives. During our last week in office, former MMC Mbundu had been working on the final contract signatures for the long outstanding Woza Work Job Creation Programme between the City and the Johannesburg Inner City Partnership. This will see up to five thousand jobs created in the inner city to be made possible in collaboration with private sector partnerships.

In that time, the Johannesburg Roads Agency - managing an urban road network of 13 599km in length was stabilised.

When ActionSA was assigned this portfolio in December 2021, much of the board had been destroyed with several departments without permanent heads of department. The CEO resigned soon after, but under former MMC Mbundu’s leadership together with management, service delivery was prioritised. 

Led by former Transport MMC Funzi Ngobeni, A Re Sebetseng service delivery blitz campaigns were initiated region-by-region, reversing much of the service query backlog that had accumulated due to JRA not having been declared an essential service at the outset of Covid-19.

Today, the City’s roads have fewer potholes after the equivalent of 112 000 repaired between February and June 2022. There are now fewer of the City’s more than 2 000 traffic signals that do not work compared to Gauteng Province’s troublesome 250 signals along the City’s arterial routes.

It is important to note that ActionSA in the City of Johannesburg could not have done this important work alone.

We salute the former Executive Mayor, Cllr Mpho Phalatse, who despite our political differences was resilient and determined to ensure the success of the Multi-Party Government. Furthermore, and notwithstanding efforts to undermine her authority by those who should have been her allies, Cllr Phalatse was always ready to abide by the spirit of co-governance and to do the very best for the residents of Joburg.

Similarly, we thank our coalition partners who, like ActionSA, persevered to the end. Political parties worked hard to place the needs of Joburg and this coalition ahead of their own party-political interests. Everything that was achieved arose from all our collective cooperation.

We also want to thank our colleagues in the Mayoral Committee; together we attempted to fix the Joburg and achieved much. It is disappointing that all of the strides made in just 10 months at the helm of government, Joburgers can expect to suffer due to the looting we are about to witness.

We also want to thank our office staff, HODs and all officials and general workers of the City. You embraced our efforts to bring about much needed change accepting the reality that things could not remain as they had been between 1994 and 2016, and again between 2019 and 2021.

Lastly, we thank the leadership of our ActionSA, the Caucus and the many activists and supporters who held on to the hope of change. To all of you we say, ‘Do Not Lose that Hope’.

ActionSA will once again govern the City of Johannesburg, and we will fix this great City we call home. What we have achieved in a short period of time bears testament to the need for ActionSA in South Africa political life.

 

Issued by ActionSA