Mashaba up in arms over reduced housing grant

Mayor of Johannesburg Herman Mashaba has asked the National Treasury to intervene in his dispute with the Gauteng provincial government.

Mashaba is up in arms after the Department of Human Settlements reduced the city’s housing grant by R180 million for the current financial year.

The MEC Uhuru Moiloa has accused the city of under performance on the delivery of houses and not cooperating with the provincial government.

Mashaba denies the statement, saying the city is being sabotaged.

He says the grant reduction has brought a number of housing projects to a halt.

This includes the Riverside Housing Project near Diepsloot, north of Johannesburg, where the construction of almost 1500 houses has stopped

Mashaba visited the site on Thursday.

“My last attempt was with the president of the country, Cyril Ramaphosa. I wrote a letter to the president for his intervention, and unfortunately, even the president decided to ignore us.”

“So, we’ve now communicated with National Treasury and hope that they can look at this matter favourably. If not, we’ll have to ask our lawyers and see if we can ask the courts to interdict the province and return our funds.”