Mashaba revived Jozi, ActionSA can do it again, says Beaumont

By Johnathan Paoli

ActionSA national chairperson Michael Beaumont has called on Johannesburg residents to reclaim the hope they once felt under Herman Mashaba’s leadership, saying that the city was working before and could work again.

Speaking in Kliptown, Soweto, at the second event of the Mashaba Legacy Tour, Beaumont praised the former mayor’s record in turning the city around and accused successive administrations of overseeing its collapse.

“It took Herman Mashaba less than a year to do what no government had done before, to electrify Kliptown, home of the Freedom Charter. The people of Joburg need the hope that comes from knowing their city was working before and can work again,” he said.

Standing before a crowd gathered near the site where the Freedom Charter was adopted in 1955, Beaumont said Johannesburg had become trapped in a “revolving door” of failed leadership.

Since Mashaba’s departure, he argued, seven mayors from