WATCH | I won't use taxpayer's money on foreigners in informal settlements – Joburg MMC

City of Joburg's MMC for housing Mlungisi Mabaso says he will never use municipal funds to provide services to foreign nationals living in informal settlements. 

Mabaso can be seen in a video captured in his office saying he would not allow taxpayer's money to be spent at the expense of South Africans in settlements dominated by foreign nationals.

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“If it’s more than 10, 000 foreign nationals, us (the city) take the taxpayer’s money and to do things for foreign nationals in the informal settlements.

“I told them they will have to do it when another MMC has been appointed and that’s when they will get the services,” Mabaso said. 

He argued the city’s resources were already overstretched.

Mabaso also alleged that certain leaders and police officials were exploiting the system by building structures in informal settlements and renting them out.

“That’s why you find double-storey houses in informal settlements. Our resources are overstretched and being wasted. In those informal settlements, we service the tenants of certain leaders and police officials.”

I told them they will have to do it when another MMC has been appointed and that’s when they will get the services

—  Mlungisi Mabaso, City of Joburg's MMC for housing

He also accused people who are gainfully employed of preferring to stay in those informal settlements because they don't want to pay for services.

According to Mabaso's spokesperson Sibonelo Mtshali, the MMC was addressing the Freedom Park leaders at the time. He said they had visited his office on Tuesday to speak to him about the status of their township and their grievances.

“Leaders were visiting his office on Tuesday, and a question may have triggered his statement about the foreign nationals. But this is something that he usually says,” he said.

"He was addressing the issue of people who become landlords in the informal settlements, a phenomenon that is considered to be illegal. It is a position that he has always held that no one can be a landlord in an informal settlements because the land, the water and sanitation comes from the city."

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