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All our problems have a common thread: Government failure to make good on the promise of a non-racial economy

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Herman Mashaba is the leader of ActionSA. Mashaba is the former executive mayor of Johannesburg and founder of the People’s Dialogue.

President Jacob Zuma’s misguided dismissals of successive Finance Ministers within a week was a watershed moment. That was when I decided to make myself available as Mayoral candidate for Johannesburg in coming local government elections.

Last week DA leader Mmusi Maimane delivered a brave and ground-breaking speech at the iconic Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg. In the absence of presidential leadership, it was an authentic leader’s call to reinvigorate the spirit of non-racialism with what Martin Luther King Junior called “the fierce urgency of now”.

The overwhelmingly positive response to Mmusi’s speech is proof that the dream of a non-racial South Africa still lives on despite the storms of accusations that often threaten to overwhelm us. We in South Africa are not alone in this battle to end racialism, as today when we read the world news we see conflicts and protests that are achingly similar to our own. However, we are unique in our challenge to defeat the deep divisions and scars with which apartheid has marked our society. This is a challenge that all South Africans must face, and we must tackle it with the greatest of effort and urgency. We must draw on the very best that our society has to actually deliver the now broken promise of a better life for all South Africans.

Mmusi’s speech took place against the backdrop of a momentous 2015. First the South Africa was transfixed by the #RhodesMustFall protests which started at UCT and spread to other campuses – tapping into a deep-seated dissatisfaction with the structural racism experienced at universities. The “Open Stellenbosch” movement forced the university community to confront the charged debate around language at universities, intersecting with demands for greater access to tertiary education. This was followed by the #FeesMustFall” campaign that swept across our university campuses – a campaign building on those that had come before it. The protests evoked memories of my own challenges when I had to abandon my studies. What infuriates me is that if we didn’t waste public money, then we could afford to offer students a better deal. Not since the 1980s have we seen such a powerful united movement marching to the Union Buildings to remind our leaders that they serve the people first.

Then came the tipping point for South Africa, and for me personally: the economic meltdown when President Jacob Zuma changed Finance Ministers twice in one week. As an employer, I was anguished by the damage done to our economy – most especially to the struggling, the poor, and those with no job at all. This was the watershed moment when I made up my mind to make myself available to be the DA Mayoral candidate for Johannesburg. The next year holds many obstacles that Johannesburg and South Africa must face.

In my Daily Maverick column I will be sharing my thoughts on how we respond to them from my perspective as the DA Mayoral candidate for Johannesburg. I invite you to push back when you disagree because I love robust debate – it is a key tool that strengthens our democracy and will help me to formulate solutions.

Most of the obstacles we face this election year – especially our failure to create jobs and the failing education system – have a common thread. They have their roots in government’s failure to do as much as possible to build a non-racial economy that is open and accessible to all. We cannot be blind to race, but we cannot let it define us as it did in the past. We must move forward acknowledging our differences – but drawing strength and unity though these. They must not divide us. Our society cannot continue to be one of such obvious extremes. Inequality must fall, through an inclusive economy.

Yet we are far from the inclusion and unity that was dreamed of in 1994. Isn’t it astonishing that in 2016 we South Africans know so little about each other in the large part? We are still separated by the healthcare we receive, the schools our children can go to, the careers we can pursue, and even by how, in the end, we die.

Why does a taxi ride from Soweto to Sandton feel like a journey between two different worlds? Why have we not created booming businesses close to where the majority of people live, with sufficient effective and reliable transport networks to safely connect them? As an entrepreneur and passionate educationist, I’ve seen how colonial and apartheid educational policies generated skill shortages that persist to the present day. That’s why we will need to be bold, and I believe there is a role for the city to assist.

Innovations such as private, low-fee schools are helping to turn around our education system – we need to support these by identifying empty, city-owned properties that entrepreneurs can turn into top performing schools of excellence. I’ve seen the challenges of how small black-owned businesses are blocked from breaking into the mainstream economy through restrictive government red tape, lack of access to property, capital, and connectivity. We must do everything in our power to leverage the city’s property portfolio, establish financing mechanisms for small businesses, and make Johannesburg a city with full internet connectivity.

If elected, I will work unceasingly to bolster home ownership. The DA city will assist home ownership where it can, and will, through effective asset management, better maintain its rental stock, and where possible assist in passing ownership so that citizens can get their title deeds, own their own homes, and be empowered to access funds to establish their own businesses. We will also end the corruption in the housing lists, and make the process transparent and fair.

I will unashamedly and unreservedly promote Johannesburg at every opportunity, in every place, and at all times. We will re-establish Johannesburg as the economic heart of South Africa, and the trade hub of Africa by making this city a safe and welcoming space for investors. Johannesburg is naturally blessed with a spirit of enterprise like nowhere else I’ve been to, and we will play to this strength.

Let me be personal here. When I started my company Black Like Me, I could not rely on banks to capitalise it. So I took on a private black financier and a white chemist as partners at a time when black and white friendships were few and far between. When I assume office, I will apply the same brand of leadership that I used to build up Black Like Me into a business that thrives and feels at home in millions of homes around South Africa. With grit and determination, we will enable thousands of businesses to create jobs in Johannesburg, as I was able to create thousands of jobs for South Africans, black and white. That’s why on Wednesday I will proudly stand shoulder to shoulder with Mmusi Maimane, and march for jobs for all South Africans.

Will you join us on this exciting journey to turn Johannesburg and South Africa around? DM

Herman Mashaba is the Democratic Alliance’s Mayoral candidate for Johannesburg.

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