Mashaba plans growth 5%

Fourteen days into his new job‚ Herman Mashaba says he wants GDP growth in Johannesburg to reach 5% during his time as mayor.

Speaking on Cape Talk’s Breakfast with Kieno Kammies yesterday, Mashaba said he would announce a plan by April on how to make this a reality.

“The only way we can arrest the spiral of high unemployment in our city is to come up with a plan that can deliver a minimum of 5%,” he said.

Johannesburg accounts for 17% of South Africa’s economic output.

Mashaba said he had met various heads of department and they had unpacked continuing and upcoming projects, and gone through the plans.

“The key parts of it‚ which is very fundamental‚ [is] for the professional civil service to recognise this new dispensation is driven and run by a DA-led administration‚” he said.

On Friday‚ Mashaba and his team decided on a 10-point plan for the city in the short to medium term.

Among the points in the plan was declaring corruption in the city as “public enemy number one”.

Mashaba said his team had agreed on the need to reduce unemployment and to accelerate growth.

The only way to drive the city’s economy was to work with the private sector‚ in particular small business‚ he emphasised.

He also said it was important to rejuvenate entrepreneurship.