By Lebone Rodah Mosima
ActionSA president and Johannesburg mayoral candidate Herman Mashaba has promised a full audit of the city’s finances within 100 days if elected, pitching his campaign as a rescue plan for a metro facing Treasury warnings, delayed financial statements and possible Eskom power cuts over unpaid debt.
Mashaba delivered his “Real State of the City Address” on Wednesday, hours before the official State of the City Address by mayor Dada Morero, saying Johannesburg was in visible decline after years of political instability, weak governance and collapsing services.
ALSO READ: Inflation jumps to 4%
Eskom said this week it had issued notice of its intention to reduce, interrupt or terminate supply to certain bulk supply points linked to the city and City Power after arrears reached R5.2 billion, excluding a further R1.58 billion current account due on 5 June.
Mashaba said the city’s crisis was already clear to residents before National Treasury warned that Johannesburg faced “severe financial distress” and while its financial statements remained delayed.
“No amount of political spin can change what residents experience every single day. Residents do not need politicians to tell them whether Johannesburg is working,” he said. “They sit in traffic at broken intersections because traffic lights are not working. They drive on roads filled with potholes and collapsing infrastructure.”
The city’s ratepayers are caught in a cycle of water outages, electricity interruptions, sewage spills and growing lawlessness, while businesses struggle with unreliable infrastructure and families faced rising costs.
“In the first 100 days, we will conduct a full financial health audit of the city and all its entities so that residents can finally know the true financial condition of Johannesburg,” Mashaba said.
He said ActionSA would restore the Diphetogo approach, redirecting money away from “waste, unnecessary political excess and bloated bureaucracy” and back into infrastructure and frontline services.
The party would also implement an Infrastructure Recovery Plan focused on water, electricity, roads and sewer infrastructure, apply urgent triage where risks were greatest, and publish clear targets with open progress reports.
Mashaba said that when he governed Johannesburg from 2016 to 2019 (as a Democratic Alliance mayor), the city replaced more than 200km of water pipes and 160km of sewer pipes, resurfaced 938 lane kilometres of roads, recruited 1,500 additional JMPD officers and released 154 city-owned properties for redevelopment, unlocking plans for more than R32 billion in private investment.
He said ActionSA would conduct an institutional review of the city, reintegrate some entities into the core administration, restore anti-corruption capacity, make lifestyle audits mandatory for senior officials and political office bearers, and open major tenders to greater public scrutiny.
“The work of reclaiming hijacked buildings and restoring order in the inner city must continue,” he said.
Mashaba also promised to recruit 2,500 additional JMPD officers over five years, reintroduce A Re Sebetseng, relaunch the Inner-City Revitalisation Programme, reduce licensing delays and support township entrepreneurs.
“In the weeks ahead, ActionSA will also launch a detailed Johannesburg manifesto that sets out our full programme for fixing this city,” he said.
