Leading a professional team for job at hand
JOHANNESBURG mayor Herman Mashaba, better known as a haircare mogul, describes himself as a servant of the people focusing on fighting corruption and ensuring that all the citizens of the city have adequate services, and not just a politician.
His leadership strategy for the city’s 33,000 strong workforce focuses on professionalism, where staff are reminded that they are not there to serve a political party but the residents of the city.
“I said ‘you guys [city staff], I want you to be professional civil servants, your role and your responsibility is to serve any government elected by the people. Don’t get yourselves involved in party political whatever … party political thing is when you must implement their policies. In five years’ time there might be another party, what you must do [is] make sure you run a professional public service,” he says in an interview in his office in the city centre.
Mashaba has been at the helm of the city’s management since the DA took over governance of Johannesburg after the local government elections in August.
He attributes his success with the Black Like me brand to surrounding himself with like-minded people, and has done the same with his mayoral committee. “I’ve survived over the last 35 years in business by always surrounding myself with like-minded people, because one thing that I recognise from the day I was born was my weaknesses. To complete myself is to always make sure I’m surrounded by like-minded people.”
This strategy did make him one of the most successful black entrepreneurs in SA’s history, but whether it will work in a coalition government — only time will tell.
His mayoral committee includes a restaurateur, a former
I’ve survived over the last 35 years in business by always surrounding myself with like-minded people
salesperson, and an academic who allegedly said the ANC failed white people, something he has since denied. MASHABA,
in his new role as the managing executive of a city, has a budget of R58.4bn.
He says he plans to use his business know how to run the city as professionally as possible, creating jobs and encouraging the growth of small businesses.
“I’m a capitalist; for me capitalism is in my DNA. I don’t just like the system, I love the system,” he says, explaining why he joined the Free Market Foundation and became its chairman.
His capitalist credo led to a rocky start in his first week as mayor when it was reported that he was planning to break up Joburg’s waste company, Pikitup, into seven pieces and give them to small businesses.
Facing a revolt after trade union federation Cosatu and the South African Municipal Workers Union threatened to shut down Johannesburg, Mashaba was quick to backtrack and promise that the city would start a consultative process which included unions, before making a decision. He says he had only spoken to residents about investigating the break-up of Pikitup, which had been the target of unprotected strikes by workers in 2015, leaving the city filthy.
Mashaba says his 10 mayoral committee members are “the best 10” out of the 104 councillors.
DA member Anthony Still will be supporting Mashaba as he embarks on the consultative process at Pikitup. Still used to be the MD of Johannesburg water, leaving the position to become a global consultant on utilities. He reportedly tried his hand at the restaurant business in 2008, but sold it in 2014.
Mashaba’s former rival Rabelani Dagada, who also vied to be the DA candidate for Johannesburg’s mayor, is the MMC for finance. Dagada is an Alexandra township native with masters’ degrees from the University of Johannesburg and the University of the Witwatersrand. He is seen by some as a policy wonk, but Mashaba believes he is the best man for the finance portfolio.
“A member of the mayoral committee does not necessarily have to be someone with financial skills. Like myself I don’t have financial skills; what do I know about finance?” Mashaba says.
“But I’ve got a fair idea of finance, I’ve got a fair idea about policy, I’ve got a fair idea about management and other dynamics. So when I looked at my caucus, without any doubt Rabulani for me came out to be the best of them.” F
OR development planning, Mashaba has turned to Funzela Ngubeni, who was the regional sales supervisor for Cathay Pacific Airways and a sales executive for Air Botswana in the past. However, it is his work as a civic leader in Cosmo City that may have caught the mayor’s attention.
Other members of the mayoral committee include:
MMC for housing Mzobanzi Ntuli, who has a background in municipal governance;
MMC for economic development Sharon Peetz who has experience in management and economic development;
MMC for health and social development Dr Mpho Phalatse;
MMC for community development Nonhlanhla Sifumba who has a diploma in banking and business;
MMC for public safety Yao-Heng
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Michael Sun, who is an attorney;
MMC for corporate and shared services, somatologist Valencia Ntombi Khumalo;
MMC for transport, council veteran Nonhlanhla Helen Makhub.
Despite being criticised for allegedly saying that poor people cannot be trusted to rule, Mashaba — a domestic worker’s son — is putting employment and entrepreneurial opportunities at the top of his to-do list.
He says he will ensure that the people of Johannesburg get the title deeds for which they have been waiting for decades and expects to sign off on the housing list within 90 days.
“People in Soweto have lived in those houses for the last 60 years and they still belong to the city.
“This city in the last six, seven years [built houses] in Alexandra in Soweto and [they] are not occupied,” Mashaba says.
“I can tell you there must be plus minus R5bn of houses vandalised by people and hijacked. The ANC security guard companies [are] watching those houses; what nonsense is this?”
Mashaba plans to announce the process of selecting a new city manager — another critical position — following the end of Trevor Fowler’s term in August.
There have been suggestions that Mike Moriarty is the favoured man for the job; but Mashaba is mum about who he prefers, saying both Fowler and Moriarty would have to apply if they are interested.
Mashaba has a tough job ahead, as he works to deliver services to the people of the city, create jobs and grow its economy.
However, residents will have to wait for him to get acclimatised to his new position before checking whether his plans are viable.
“Give me a chance to look at it,” he says in reply to some questions, pointing out that he has been mayor for only two weeks.
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