Dumelang, Molweni, Sanibonani, Goeie More, Good Morning;

It is a pleasure to be with you in Johannesburg again, in the New Year, to talk about the future of our city.

It is hard to comprehend that this city was turning the corner just a few years ago when Herman Mashaba was still mayor. From infrastructure maintenance to combatting crime, and from insourcing to basic service delivery - Herman Mashaba was the last and only mayor who got the basics right in Johannesburg. Since then, coalitions led by the ANC, DA, and micro-parties such as Al-Jamah have taken our city backwards.

That is precisely why ActionSA has launched this Mashaba Legacy Tour - to show residents that their city once had a leader who got their city working, and this can happen again. There is no need to go back to already failed alternatives, or to import mayors who did something 20 years ago. Herman Mashaba was getting on with the work of fixing our city, and ActionSA is ready to finish the job.

Today, I want to discuss how Herman Mashaba gave dignity to thousands of security guards and cleaners through his insourcing initiatives.

When Mashaba came into office, he found workers who were being exploited by the middlemen tenderpreneurs. Security guards and cleaners approached Mashaba and shows how they were paid irregularly, never received letters of appointment and were mistreated. While security guards earned R4000 a month, the city was paying the tenderpreneurs R14 000 per security guard.

Not only was this model exploitative, it was financially unsustainable - the city had over 150 existing contracts with companies totaling R700 million a year. The same problem was faced with the outsourcing of cleaners. Companies were being paid R6500 per outsourced cleaner, whilst the cleaners themselves were given meagre crumbs of R3000 a month.

The problem was evident - the connected had gotten wealthy off the backs of workers and ballooned the cost of government, and no one had the appetite to hold them accountable. That was until Herman Mashaba became mayor.

Mashaba cancelled the contracts of the security and cleaning companies and employed the cleaners and security guards directly. As a result of this, these workers received proper letters of appointment, regular pay and the city could afford to increase their salaries by more than 50% - 100% and still keep the costs below the level of the contracts of old.

And so, over the course of three years, over 4000 security guards and nearly 2000 cleaners were insourced.

This insourcing initiative is widely regarded to be amongst the largest scale insourcing projects undertaken in the public sector. Insourcing also served Mashaba's pro-poor agenda. Instead of tenderpreneurs fattening their pockets, funds were now directly in the hands of the workers who needed them to support themselves and their families.

Herman Mashaba’s record extends far beyond just insourcing. He also delivered for Johannesburg residents in so many other ways:

The highest levels of resident satisfaction (74%) in the history of the city.

Redirecting R2 billion from luxuries and wastage to service delivery infrastructure.

Reducing power outages from 6.1 to 5.8 per annum (during peak load shedding).

Reducing water leaks and bursts from 45 000 to 37 000 per annum.

Achieving R17 billion in facilitated investment in 2018/19.

Resurfacing 900km of bad roads (24% of all bad roads in the city).

Building the largest electricity sub-station of its kind in the southern hemisphere within schedule and under budget.

Extending the operating hours of 26 clinics, saving more than 500 lives with after-hour care.

Starting 5 city-operated substance abuse facilities, the first in the city’s history.

Procuring 7 mobile clinics to provide primary healthcare to informal settlements.

Delivered 7000 RDP homes and 7500 title deeds and 3500 serviced stands.

The largest expansion of the JMPD with 1500 new officers recruited.

Establishing a specialized K9 Narcotics Unit.

An anti-corruption unit that investigated over 6000 cases of corruption totalling more than R35 billion in transactions under investigation and effecting more than 900 arrests.

This list of achievements is all the more impressive considering Mashaba led a 7-way minority coalition because Mashaba knew that a stable and effective coalition should give expression to the policy platforms of all parties.

ActionSA will be highlighting these and many more achievements that form part of Mashaba’s legacy because residents of Johannesburg need a reminder and they need hope. They need to be reminded that they once had a mayor who was able to govern ethically and effectively, and they need the hope that it can be done again.

Herman Mashaba got Joburg working and ActionSA can do it again.

Thank you.