Newly appointed Johannesburg Mayor, Jolidee Matongo says he will hit the ground running, and continue where the late Geoff Makhubo left off.
Matongo takes over from Makhubo who died recently due to COVID-19 related complications. Matongo and his 10-Member Mayoral Committee have been sworn-in during a ceremony at the Joburg Theatre.
After being sworn in, he immediately committed to pick up where Makhubo left off.
Matongo says there are a lot of plans which the late mayor had put in place, now all that’s left is implementation.
“We are taking over from mayor Makhubo’s programmes and plans. We have already approved the IDP of the City which is a five year programme coupled with the service delivery implementation plan and the annual plan. And the budget has already been allocated. We need to ensure that the plans are implemented and budget is spent.”
City challenges
Matongo says he is fully aware of the challenges that face the city, including land invasions and housing allocations.
“The housing waiting list is growing by the day because Johannesburg is the city of opportunities therefore it adds to our housing problems. We do have a Johannesburg social housing company, to ensure that people can rent and we are ramping up on our mega housing projects to make sure that people have access to housing.”
The portfolios of the majority of members remain unchanged in order to ensure continuation. Only two portfolio, Finance and Economic Development have been assigned new MMCs.
Thomas Mofokeng replaces MMC Lawrence Khoza in the Economic Development portfolio. Matshidiso Mfikoe returns as MMC Finance after having served under the former Johannesburg Mayor Parks Tau pre-2016. Mfikoe says she has to ensure the city gets a clean audit.
“Part of what he has raised with me is the need to improve the collection of revenue in the city. Working on sorting out the billing problems that communities might have, curbing fruitful and wasteful expenditure. Department must spend and spend on the right things. The departments need to give us clean audits and that’s that.”
With the local government elections looming, Matongo has only a few months to prove to Johannesburg residents that he and the ruling party have what it takes to govern the City again.
Video: Joburg Mayor promises to follow the late Makhubo’s footsteps
