Former mayor of Johannesburg Herman Mashaba has hit back at current mayor Geoff Makhubo’s statement that the former administration drove the City to near financial collapse.
Makhubo briefed the media at the Metro Centre on 19 February on the State of the City and accused the DA-led administration of crippling the City’s coffers and ‘creating an environment where maladministration bordering on fraud and corruption has thrived’.
“Populist policies and decision making, coupled with a narcissistic executive mayor in search of public affirmation have rendered the City dysfunctional in many critical areas of service delivery,” claimed Makhubo.
In response, Mashaba said he believed it would be intolerable to have to entertain any lessons of morality, ethics or leadership from Makhubo whom he also believed should be jailed for corruption charges on allegations relating to a contractual relationship with a Gupta-linked company while Makhubo was sill MMC for Finance.
Don’t believe the attempts to discredit the achievements of the coalition government over the past three years. 🚒🚒🚒 #FactsNotFiction https://t.co/HFTFabPXpC
— Herman Mashaba (@HermanMashaba) February 20, 2020
“The fact that Makhubo is holding press conferences, rather than serving a 15-year sentence for corruption is an indictment to our criminal justice,” alleged Mashaba. “Contrary to these allegations, the pre-audit financial statements for 2018/19 financial year reflected a significant improvement in the City’s financial health and liquidity.”
“To date, not a single fire engine has been delivered to the City” – @GeoffMakhubo. Not sure about you, Geoff, but these look like fire engines to me? #FactsNotFiction pic.twitter.com/gJvy2bBqab
— Herman Mashaba (@HermanMashaba) February 20, 2020
Mashaba questioned Makhubo’s claims that the Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) was dysfunctional, suffered illegal political interference and that the 1 500 new recruits were paraded without completing training.
“Makhubo’s claims about the JMPD recruits are equally disingenuous and are clearly a continuation of his effort to purge the chief of police, David Tembe, and recapture the law enforcement agencies that were waging wars against crime and corruption under the leadership of the coalition government.”
What do you think about the claims made by the former and current mayors?
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