Herman Mashaba ignores corruption at Joburg Roads Agency to appease coalition partner 

The ANC Caucus in the City of Johannesburg has noted with contempt the recent reports of the Democratic Alliance (DA) under the leadership of Executive Mayor Herman Mashaba.

The Executive Mayor has continuously overlooked the corruption taking place at the Johannesburgburg Roads Agency (JRA), an entity of the City, in an attempt to maintain relations with one of the DA's coalition partners in the City of Johannesburg, Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP).

The City of Johannesburg has been riddled with potholes and non-operating traffic lights which are left unattended to for months on end since the DA-led coalition came into office. The City’s infrastructure has holistically deteriorated since September 2016. 

The JRA, which falls under the Department of Transport is currently under the control of the DA’s coalition partner, the IFP. 

Management experienced and identified gaps in the contractors performance,  the first being a Mpumalanga-based company contracted to build the double-decker bridge in the City, worth R91 million. The company missed the deadline, managing to only complete 17% of the work. Executives managing the projects sought to terminate the said contracts but encountered resistance from the Board Chairperson, IFP’s Sibusiso Tshabalala, who denied the cancellation of the contract despite non-performance. Despite failure to complete the contract on time, the company was rewarded with R14 million by the City. The Chairperson has to date been protected by Mayor Mashaba.

A new contractor was later appointed, Khato Civils, without going through a tender process. To our surprise, the value of the contract increased from R91 million, to R144 million. Khato Civils received a pre-payment of R22 million in December 2017 without any work being done nor any paper work being finalized. The paper work was finalized in February 2018. 

The ANC Caucus in the City of Johannesburg strongly condemns the corruption that is taking place at the City’s entity under the Leadership of Mayor Mashaba, particularly his failure to act on issues of irregular governance when pointed out by experts in the field. Instead, he chose to take the side of his coalition partner Board chairperson, who has dodgy criminal credentials against good advice. He chose to terminate the services of six (6) Senior Executives out of eight (8) among whom is the governance expert, in this instance the Company Secretary and the Managing Director of the entity an Engineering Doctor. 

Any prepayment to any contractor without work being done is unlawful. As the ANC Caucus we will be calling upon the State Investigation Unit (SIU) of the Republic to investigate all matters raised in the Carte Blanche and Amabhungane expose, as well as matters raised by all the senior officials in this matter. 

These recent revelations form only a part of  clear indications of how the DA and its coalition partners, under the leadership of the Executive Mayor, Herman Mashaba, are turning a blind eye to corruption as part of their quest to loot  the City of Johannesburg under the guise of being corruption busters. 

Issued by Justice Ngalonkulu, ANC Convener of Transport, 25 April 2018