Johannesburg mayor is ‘unapologetically pro-poor’ and pledges new direction
Herman Mashaba plans to increase funding for housing‚ lengthen hours at clinics and root out corruption to help address the needs of the city’s under-served
During the public opening of the new R360m Council Chamber a few weeks ago‚ Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba described his administration as "unapologetically pro-poor" and pledged a new direction to address the needs of the city’s under-served — allocating the bulk of the growing budget to this sector. On Wednesday, in his first state of the city address‚ Mashaba said voters had given him a mandate to break from the ways of the past to address the troubles Johannesburg faces: "We can no longer conduct business as usual‚ it is now time for business unusual." Mashaba announced plans to increase funding for housing‚ lengthen hours at clinics across the city, and root out corruption that creates wasteful spending. The main way he hopes to fund these projects is increasing the growth rate in Johannesburg to 5% in 2021 from the current projected 1.6%.
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