{"id":157997,"date":"2017-02-16T08:42:17","date_gmt":"2017-02-16T06:42:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=157997"},"modified":"2017-02-16T08:42:17","modified_gmt":"2017-02-16T06:42:17","slug":"da-knuckles-down-on-mashaba-after-immigration-gaffe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/157997\/da-knuckles-down-on-mashaba-after-immigration-gaffe\/","title":{"rendered":"DA knuckles down on Mashaba after &#8220;immigration&#8221; gaffe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Democratic Alliance is scrambling to save its reputation, and prove it is a party capable of governing South Africa following a series of gaffes by\u00a0Johannesburg mayor, Herman Mashaba.<\/p>\n<p>According to a report by\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/politics\/articles\/2017-02-15\/democratic-alliance-tightens-leash-on-its-johannesburg-mayor\" target=\"_blank\">Bloomberg<\/a>,<\/strong>\u00a0the DA has now\u00a0assembled a task team to supervise the four big municipalities it\u2019s running in alliance with smaller parties,\u00a0after Mashaba referred to undocumented immigrants as criminals in comments that sparked criticism from civil rights groups and government.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We can\u2019t appoint people and say, we\u2019ll see you in five years,&#8221; said DA leader Mmusi Maimane, in an interview on Wednesday (15 February).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople must know there is accountability. There\u2019s freedom for people to innovate in government but they must deliver on the manifesto. Johannesburg is a big metro. I have put together a team that must go support the new leadership.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Maimane also noted\u00a0concerns about the Johannesburg government\u2019s plans to merge close to a dozen municipal companies with the council\u2019s departments that have sparked criticism from labor unions and unease in his own party.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStatements like that do not help,\u2019\u2019 Maimane said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe concerns about immigration, those are national issues that require national engagement. We must stick to the arrangements that are not only enshrined in our constitution but in our practice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to Bloomberg Mashaba said he was pleased about the involvement of the team sent by the party but warned it should let him proceed with his work.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat is something I welcome, as long as they obviously do not interfere with my day-to-day business.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe problem of undocumented immigrants is not a national issue; it\u2019s something that impacts directly on the city of Johannesburg\u2019s ability to deliver to our people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat is why, with immigration not being our competency, we engage the national government to do something about it because, how can anyone expect us to deliver to the residents of Johannesburg when we have so many undocumented immigrants.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/157315\/joburg-mayor-sacks-mmc-over-city-power-investigation-dispute\/\" target=\"_blank\">Joburg mayor sacks MMC over City Power investigation dispute<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Democratic Alliance is scrambling to save its reputation as a party capable of governing South Africa following a series of major mistakes by Johannesburg mayor, Herman Mashaba.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":134120,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[25,1850],"class_list":["post-157997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-active","tag-bloomberg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157997"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":158047,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157997\/revisions\/158047"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}