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The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Johannesburg has written to President Cyril Ramaphosa, urgently requesting a Special Investigating Unit (SIU) investigation into a decade of financial mismanagement, and ethical failure at the Johannesburg Property Company (JPC).

This call comes on behalf of the six million residents of Johannesburg who continue to suffer the consequences of poor governance, corruption, and indifference.

The JPC is entrusted with managing Johannesburg’s extensive and valuable property assets. But for years, evidence has mounted pointing to widespread procurement irregularities, a culture of impunity, and outright neglect of City-owned properties.

The DA has outlined a request for the SIU to investigate:

• All financial transactions and procurement decisions made by the JPC since 2014;
• Outdoor advertising contracts and questionable commission-based revenue collection;
• Failures to manage buildings and ensure health, safety and building compliance which led to /being hijacked
• Breaches of financial legislation, including unauthorised and wasteful expenditure; and
• Repeated neglect of findings from previous oversight bodies including findings from the SIU and Auditor-General.

Despite multiple warnings, Council debates, oversight reports, and letters to City leadership and national government, no substantive action has been taken.

We are left with no choice but to ask the President himself to intervene—because the people of Johannesburg cannot afford to wait any longer.

The DA has attached extensive supporting documents to its submission, including previous SIU reports, Council reports, letters to the City, Provincial and National Government which have all been ignored.

It is particularly worrying that the DA has been necessitated to ask for an SIU intervention, this is something that a competent Mayor would have been able to address. It is for this reason, and the general decay Johannesburg, that the DA has submitted a motion of no confidence in Johannesburg Executive Mayor, Dada Morero.

It is now urging President Ramaphosa to issue a Presidential Proclamation so that a full, independent and transparent SIU investigation can begin. The DA will always stand for constitutionalism, accountability, the rule of law and restoring public trust.

Issued by Cllr Belinda Kayser-Echeozonjoku - DA Johannesburg Caucus Leader