Rustenburg - Prominent businessman Herman Mashaba is prepared to stand as a mayoral candidate for the Democratic Alliance in the City of Johannesburg, he said on Thursday.
“I have decided to announce that I am making myself available as mayoral candidate for the Democratic Alliance for city of Johannesburg 2016. For too long I have watched from the sidelines at how corrupt and self-serving ANC politicians have mismanaged Johannesburg – Africa’s most vibrant economic powerhouse.”
The Black like Me company founder said on the DA’s website he believed it was time that hard working and honest people mad themselves available for public service.
“In the spirit I am prepared to throw in 100 percent of my effort into the bid to be the DA’s mayoral candidate. It is my hope that the city will once again be the beacon of light for the whole of Africa and a safe haven for its own citizens,” he said.
“I am beyond concerned at the unemployment that exists in this city and believe that the DA has the policies and processes to arrest the current hopelessness created by unemployment. Unemployment is unacceptably high in the city that is the economic hub of the continent.”
He said corruption simply had to be eradicated.
“The DA wants to ensure that the city’s considerable assets and income are not wasted, mismanaged, or squandered, but are instead harnessed to the benefit of those who live and want to work in the city.”
He said those areas that did not enjoy efficient service delivery had to be addressed with greater urgency and speed, and the only party capable of delivering services in the current landscape of dysfunctional facilities and infrastructure was the DA, as had been proven by their excellent performance in the Western Cape.
“I am committed to supporting the DA in their endeavour to win the city of Johannesburg in the 2016 election. All the people of Johannesburg deserve better, and only the DA can address the residents’ concerns for crime, poverty, joblessness, corruption, and service delivery. The ANC have had 21 years to deliver. I believe that it is high time that the DA is given an opportunity to deliver for the citizens of Johannesburg.”
Mashaba, 56, launched the iconic Black Like Me hair product in 1985, turning it into a multi-billion rand company and household name in South Africa.
He is also the chairman of the Free Market Foundation (FMF). He courted controversy when he said that Section 32 of the Labour Relations Act created unemployment and uncompetitive working conditions in product markets, prompting Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) to call for a boycott of his hair products.
The FMF is challenging Section 32 of the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 in the Gauteng North High Court on constitutional grounds.
The LRA allows for employer and union parties to establish a bargaining council to negotiate terms and conditions of employment between parties. Section 32 provides for the obligatory extension of any collective agreement concluded in a bargaining council to “any non-parties to the collective agreement that are within its registered scope and are identified in the request”.
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