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The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Johannesburg is deeply disturbed by Johannesburg Executive Mayor Dada Morero's comments that his Mayoral office will be moved, and will be relocated to the USINDISO building. This will no doubt come after an extensive and expensive renovation and luxurious upgrade.
The USINDISO building is where 77 people tragically lost their lives, after it was gutted in a fire. Creating a mayoral office, in a fire gutted building will likely come at extraordinary cost.
Then horrible irony is that despite the loss of 77 innocent lives in this building fire, and scathing findings in the Judge Khampepe Report, the Executive Mayor and his Executives have yet to act on recommendations. There has been no accountability for the death of 77 people, yet the first pronouncement of the Mayor is that he will take on the building to use as his own.
We believe that the mayor’s priorities are completely misplaced. The DA will reject and resist this vanity project for Morero, starting with probing questions into the plan and cost for this project.
As is the norm, this risks massive corruption and cadre contracts. The DA will not allow this to happen.
The City has also just revealed a R27 billion backlog on the real infrastructure people need, yet here the Mayor plans to spend money on himself in his office.
As a contrast to Morero spending money on himself, the only shelter in the Inner City at Kotze Street has barely any resources or care from the City, and was shut down following a health inspection. While Morero’s city fails the needy, he himself needs luxurious new offices.
The DA believes that instead of spending money which the city doesn’t have, the ANC-ACTIONSA-EFF-PA Coalition should rather:
Properly audit of all buildings that are owned by the City and dilapidated;
Reduce red tape and make it easier for the private sector to partner with the city and convert these buildings to mixed use and affordable housing;
Work with banks and businesses to rejuvenate the inner city by fast tracking processes of zoning and building plan approvals;
There are already businesses and partners who have successfully turned around pockets of the inner city, work with them, get their expertise on board; and
Take an intergovernmental approach to create safe spaces in some of these buildings to take people off the streets.
The DA is entirely unsatisfied by the information currently available on this project.
We will be pursuing this all-out, at full-steam, to ensure that the city’s money is spent on residents, and not on the ANC-ACTIONSA-EFF-PA Coalition mayor’s vanity project.
Issued by Cllr Belinda Kayser-Echeozonjoku - DA Johannesburg Caucus Leader
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