Читать книгу The Accidental Mayor - Michael Beaumont - Страница 8

Foreword by Herman Mashaba

On 22 August 2016, I was elected the executive mayor of the City of Johannesburg. It was with a desperately narrow majority formed by seven political parties at the time. Our task was to meet the astronomical expectation of delivering change in Johannesburg to people who had been forgotten by one successive government after another.

I was not a politician, either by experience or desire. It was something I had got myself into because I believed so much in the potential of our country as defined in that magical moment in 1994, and I had watched the ruling party tarnish that moment year after year with their rampant corruption, failed governments and inability to unleash the potential inherent within the South African spirit.

I knew I needed people around me to assist in this mammoth task, none more so than a chief of staff. Your first appointment as a leader of government is your chief of staff, and for good reason. It is a critical position; the right choice will advance your agenda, while the wrong choice will cripple it.

Appointing Michael Beaumont as my chief of staff was one of the better decisions I made as mayor of Johannesburg. Together, along with the team we assembled, we worked tirelessly to advance an agenda of change that would stop corruption, deliver services and create jobs. Together, we waged battle against the forces that worked against every prospect of our success.

In the process, we forged a bond in a way that only happens when two people work closely together against impossible odds and begin to achieve great feats.

This is why there is no one better than Michael to tell this story.

HERMAN MASHABA

JOHANNESBURG, 2020