Mashaba to engage the People of Alexandra

5 April 2019

As the Executive Mayor, I will be leading an engagement with the people of Alexandra regarding their grievances. I have done so on many occasions in the past, and I am certain, I will on many occasions in the future.

I have noted erroneous reports that I was due to engage the residents of Alexandra today. I believe this has been maliciously reported, as I was due to lead a Civic Funeral in the City of Johannesburg at the same time and could not have made such a commitment.

The people of Alexandra have been mistreated by decades of promises made on the eve of elections for the sake of narrow political gain. It began with the Alexandra Renewal Project in 2001, the Presidential Priority Project in 2007 and continued with the signing of a Statement of Intent just before the 2016 Local Government Elections.

On every occasion these political celebrations were not budgeted, no real planning was undertaken and the political promises made evaporated soon after the elections. This is, in part, why the people of Alexandra have any reason to be angry.

The protests that have arisen this week have their roots in very legitimate grievances of the community in Alexandra.

Unfortunately they have been hijacked by those who seek to advance political interests, right up until the level of the President.

The City’s efforts to receive the memorandum of concerns have been unsuccessful, which demonstrates how the efforts to raise and address the legitimate grievances of the community have been thwarted by politics.

Unlike the past, I will not be involved in an exercise of lying to the people of Alexandra or anywhere else in Johannesburg for this matter.  It is for this reason that my engagement with the people of Alexandra will take place during the scheduled IDP Public Consultation session on Monday 15 April 2019. It will take the form of an engagement around the budget, the key service delivery priorities in the area and the community telling us what they need from government.

By engaging with the people of Alexandra on this platform, we will be able to orientate this much needed engagement around budgets, plans and deliverables needed in the community.

I will be calling a meeting next week with all of the Ward and Public Representative Councillors serving the people of Alexandra.

At this meeting we will ensure that we discuss a shared approach to the meeting as public representatives to avoid the kind of petty politics that has characterised the events of this week.

When we meet on 15 April 2019, we will work to ensure that the voices of the people of Alexandra are heard and that the budgets and plans of the City of Johannesburg are responsive to their needs.

There is no doubt that they can never be addressed in a short space of time, given how they have arisen over many years and given how many communities in Johannesburg suffer from similar neglect.

However we will ensure that, progressively, the City of Johannesburg and the people of Alexandra partner to see their needs being addressed better than ever before.

Our multi-party government in Johannesburg is committed to bringing the much needed change to our residents. We will always be a government that is responsive to the needs of our people, and is pro-poor in its focus on those living under the legacy of our past. Our record in delivering services in Alexandra over the past 2.5 years, speaks to this.

In an election campaign there must be scope for vigorous debate. However, it is a tragedy that the legitimate concerns of the people of Alexandra are being lost in the petty politics of elections. This is something that should be condemned by everyone who shares the view that more has to be done in this community.

I call upon the media and the people of Alexandra to reject the politics masking the grievances of the people of Alexandra, and listen to the people.

Issued by Luyanda Mfeka, Director: Mayoral Communications, Office of the Executive Mayor, 5 April 2019