Selling mayoral mansion a start

ON MONDAY Tshwane executive mayor Solly Msimanga announced his plan to sell the official mayoral residence. The upmarket four bed-roomed home will be put on auction at a reserve price of R5 million. If it is sold for that amount, he hopes his administration will be able to fund the construction of about 40 low cost homes for people who would otherwise live in shacks.Msimanga’s rationale is simple.

The house is a white elephant. He doesn’t need it.As a political gambit, it’s priceless – a statement of intent.

But it also opens the door on the issue of state homes and the cost of their upkeep, especially older dwellings that would be better turned into museums or transformed into function centres, like the Gauteng government’s Emoyeni Conference Venue, which does a bustling trade in weddings, conferences and team buildings in what was once a Randlord’s mansion on the Parktown Ridge – bringing in much needed revenue to the province in the process.

This week, like Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba told us in no uncertain terms just how dire the nation’s finances are when he presented his inaugural mid-term budget. Government has to cut costs and, if it can’t cut jobs for obvious reasons, it has to get rid of assets that no longer make any sense, like official houses or a national airline that is more albatross than golden goose.

Politicians can help by dispensing with expensive blue light brigades that are more vanity than protection and walk the talk of austerity.A key part of that is looking after that which you have, which is why Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba’s public clean up today is so important too. If we work together, we care together, we shoulder the burden together and we benefit together – but the politicians have to roll up their sleeves too.