Johannesburg - The DA took the plight of unemployment straight to Joburg mayor Parks Tau’s office on Wednesday, urging him to break his silence on the scourge which has rendered almost a million people jobless in the country’s richest metro.
Entrepreneur Herman Mashaba, the DA’s Joburg mayoral candidate, led throngs of party supporters in their march from Pieter Roos Park in Empire Road to the Braamfontein Civic Centre.
Mashaba said that while 869 000 residents were unemployed in the city, Tau had spent millions of rand of taxpayers’ money on adverts to promote himself.
Mashaba rapped him over the knuckles for not offering any solutions to unemployment, saying it was a “scar” on Tau’s record.
“His silence on the jobs crisis is absolutely deafening.”
If voted mayor during the municipal elections on August 3, he said, his priorities would be professionalising the public service, investing in infrastructure to attract investment, cutting wasteful expenditure and corruption, and giving support to entrepreneurs, among others.
“When I started my hair-care business in 1985, I did it with a R30 000 loan. Over the last 30 years, I employed thousands of people. I am living proof that entrepreneurs create jobs,” said Mashaba, the founder of hair products company Black Like Me.
Speaking to The Star, Mashaba said that in the first five years of his administration, he would bring the unemployment rate in Joburg down to 20 percent.
“The first five years is important for me to make sure that people can vote me the second time around,” he said, adding he also planned to invest in infrastructure such as roads and giving people title deeds.
“That’s something as a city that we can do immediately, we don’t have to wait for years.”
“If I fail to fulfil the promises, vote me out!”
The businessman was with DA Joburg caucus leader Vasco da Gama, regional secretary Khume Ramulifho, provincial leader John Moodey and national spokeswoman Refiloe Nt’sekhe.
Ramulifho said they had decided to march to Tau’s office to demonstrate their unhappiness with the unemployment crisis and his failure to attract big investments into the city.
“Joburg is no longer the beacon of hope,” he added.
Municipal spokesman Virgil James said addressing unemployment was top on the city’s to-do list, and that programmes had already been put in place.
“The city is creating employment for our people so that they can make a living,” he said.
@luyolomkentane
The Star