Statement by Lloyd Phillips, GOOD’s Mayoral Candidate for the Joburg Metro
16 September 2021
Lloyd Phillips has unfinished business in the City of Johannesburg. He was doing sterling work as the City’s Mayco Member for Economic Development when he was inexplicably recalled by his then-party, last year, after intervening in looting related to Covid-19.
Serving on the late Mayor Geoff Makhubo’s MAYCO in 2019/2020, Phillip’s department achieved all its key performance indicators for the first time in history, but that counted for nothing after he placed two senior officials of the Joburg Property Company on precautionary suspension for their alleged roles in the PPE scandal. Next thing he was recalled. Gone.
“I thought I had a mandate to stop corruption but lacked political support to tackle what is a widespread and very entrenched problem,” Phillips reflects.
“I joined GOOD because I know what needs to be done to fix Johannesburg, and that it can’t be done without the support of a political leader of integrity who is genuine about rooting out corruption. Aunty Pat stands out. She has a track-record of opposing injustice for nearly 50 years, and in 1999 became one of the first whistle-blowers of the democratic era with respect to arms deal corruption. Good people are in the majority in this country and this City. Too many are cowered into silence. The silent majority must rise and wash away corrupt officials in our councils,” he said.
“I also have unfinished business in the Jo’burg municipality, seeing projects such as the Southern Farms Mega Project through to completion, and ensuring they don’t go the same way as that infamous dairy project in the Free State.”
The Southern Farms Mega Project is among Phillips’ top priorities. It is a project that seeks, besides agricultural production, to contribute to spatial justice in Johannesburg. Achieving spatial justice is one of the four pillars of GOOD’s policy.
The incoherence of Johannesburg and Gauteng’s leadership over the past several years turned the Southern Farms Mega Project into a political football. When the DA-led the City, it wanted nothing to do with the project, leaving it in the hands of the ANC-led province. The province kicked the project back to the City during Phillips’ time as MMC.
Phillips is ready to return to the hornet’s nest of the Johannesburg City Council, this time without instructions to pull any punches. His message to good people, regardless of who they may have voted for in the past, is that it’s time to fight the GOOD fight.
“Strap on those gloves and lend us your vote. If we let you down, vote us out.”
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