A Democratic Alliance-led City of Johannesburg will tax the rich of Sandton, Fourways and Morningside and other areas to finance the development and upgrading of poor areas like Alexandra and others.

“This is part of the strategy of the DA to ensure that we bring parity and upliftment to these areas which have suffered from neglect and underfunding from the apartheid government and the current rulers of our democratic country.

“I have held numerous discussions with the folk in the rich areas and they understand my vision. My vision is that if we can develop and upgrade these communities and transform the apartheid scenario of the haves and the have-nots, I think we shall go a long way in not only bringing parity and bridging the divide, but also fighting other social issues that manifest themselves as a result, such as crime, poverty and unemployment.”

Herman Mashaba, the Johannesburg DA mayoral candidate espoused these views during an exclusive interview with Alex News as we drove around the township to his various engagements with the people, including the Madala Hostel where he was denied entry, and meeting the residents of extensions 7, 9 and 10 in the Far Eastbank.

“For me to achieve all this, I need a functional economy of the city. A functional economy will translate into more taxes being paid, more jobs being created and more and more people finding employment as well as increasing the financial liquidity of the City,” he said.

Mashaba claimed the DA-run City of Cape Town was spending 78 percent of its total budget in poor areas. “This is part of the redress which needs to happen in this country if we’re to address the socio-economic imbalances of the past between blacks and whites.

“The people of Sandton respect and understand that such a transformation needs to happen for social and racial cohesion of the residents of the City of Johannesburg across colour lines.

“We voted for the ANC for the past 22 years, as we believed in them, but what has happened is that they have abused this trust we had in them and they concentrated more on feeding themselves and their close friends and families at the expense of you, the voters,” Mashaba said.

The multimillionaire businessman of the Black Like Me company, who delegated the running of his cosmetic businesses empire to his wife, said the issue here was not much more about the DA winning but was about saving Johannesburg and South Africa, as a whole, from collapse.

“If Joburg works, South Africa works and we need to put plans in place to ensure that the City works for all of us and the whole country,” he said.