The Johannesburg Social Movement has called on councillors to remove City of Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba citing his lack of vision for the city. Chief amongst the movement’s grievances are the mayor’s decision to call for the cancellation of the Jozi Bread and Jozi@Work programme. The movement’s spokesperson Tshepang Mokgatla said the mayor’s decision to call for the cancellation of the Jozi@Work programme without offering an alternative is of great concern. “This demonstrates his lack of insight on the programme and its objectives,” said Mokgatla. The movement claims the programme has created employment opportunities for more than 8000 people and over 112 cooperatives in the city.
Mokgatla bemoaned Mashaba’s scrapping of Jozi Breads where bakers underwent intensive training and upskilling offered by the previous administration led by Cllr Parks Tau. The movement believes the bakeries funding model is effective with 50 bakeries established. “This programme addressed poverty, unemployment and encouraged healthy eating while it also intervened against collusive trading by the bread cartels as found guilty by the Competition Collusion,” explained Mokgatla.
Tony Taverna-Turisan, the mayor’s spokesperson, said it was clear to Mashaba’s office that the group had the previous governing party’s agenda and that the mayor dismissed their claims as laughable. He said Tshepang lost out on election to be a councillor as ward 125 candidate and this programme was sponsored by the ANC. “We would like to request residents of the city not to be fooled by this formation hell-bent on attacking the current leadership,” said Tony.
He said the Jozi@Work project would be revamped and launched in about six months, and it would provide more job opportunities – with residents being employed by the city directly. He said the Jozi bread contract had been cancelled months ago when the mayor saw it was a “vanity project” which “no sane businessperson” would back.
“The city is looking at ways to see how those who were left out after the contract was cancelled were affected, but no decision has been made,” Taverna-Turisan said
The Johannesburg Social Movement has planned a march to the mayor’s office on Thursday.
