RISE Mzansi Johannesburg mayoral candidate Lukhona Mguni has laid out a hardline anti-crime and anti-corruption agenda for South Africa’s economic capital, declaring that his administration would purge criminals embedded in City administration and launch lifestyle audits on senior managers.
Delivering the keynote address at the launch of RISE Mzansi’s Municipal Plan in Rosebank on Tuesday night, Mguni said Johannesburg’s collapse was not an accident but the product of entrenched criminality inside the council, its entities and the Johannesburg Metro Police Department.
“RISE Mzansi is here to STOP AMASELA (thieaves). They must start packing up. Corruption stops with us in Joburg,” Mguni told supporters.
“If we are to turnaround Joburg, there is an urgent need to get rid of criminals within the administration of the city. We need to conduct urgent lifestyle audits on most of the senior management positions.”
In a speech heavily focused on safety, service delivery and governance, Mguni said hijacked buildings, water infrastructure sabotage and drug syndicates operating from city-owned taxi ranks were symptoms of a deeper rot.
“The hijacked buildings are a product of criminality that is embedded in the city administration and within some echelons of Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD). The drug syndicates are thriving, even in city owned properties such as taxi ranks,” he said.
He pledged to dismantle the networks through a multidisciplinary intelligence drive involving SAPS and the State Security Agency, coupled with protection for whistleblowers to create “a clear pipeline for those who want to report colleagues who are implicated in criminal conduct within the city.”
On policing, Mguni said JMPD needed a complete culture shift away from roadblocks towards by-law enforcement and visible crime prevention, backed by body cameras, dashboard cameras, integrated technology, functioning radio communication and proper resourcing for fuel and fleet.
“We must stop making the residents of Joburg not to feel safe. We must stop the water tank mafias who at times sabotage water infrastructure. We must stop the exploitation of contract workers at Pikitup,” he said.
Mguni used the platform – billed as “The Johannesburg Charge for a Safe, Clean and Prosperous Joburg” – to position RISE Mzansi as a clean-governance alternative ahead of the next municipal cycle, arguing that a decade of unstable coalitions had left residents paying for services they do not receive.
The launch comes as RISE Mzansi tries to consolidate its foothold in Gauteng metros after campaigning since 23 May 2026. Mguni said the party’s people-to-people campaign had drawn residents associations, taxi associations, the Joburg Crisis Alliance, business formations and the United Ulama Council of South Africa into its planning process.
At the heart of those demands, he said, was a call for capable, caring, honest and ethical leadership and for meaningful public participation.
“Our offer to the residents of Joburg is to achieve a Safe, Clean and Prosperous Joburg,” he said. “We have listened carefully and with great intention.”
On coalitions – the faultline that has left Johannesburg with a revolving door of mayors – Mguni laid down non-negotiables. RISE Mzansi would publish any coalition agreement for public scrutiny, refuse to work with parties that “flirt with criminality”, vet all Mayoral Committee nominees for fitness for office, and demand a public zero-tolerance stance on corruption from all partners.
He also took aim at opaque procurement, calling it “a good friend of criminality.” His plan includes public vetting of bid evaluation and adjudication committees, publication of recordings of their deliberations, and deployment of technology to flag inflated prices and speed up tender processes.
On service delivery, Mguni argued the city should consider collapsing its troubled entities – Johannesburg Water, Pikitup, Joburg Roads Agency, City Power and the Johannesburg Development Agency – back into the core administration to end blame-shifting.
“Residents, from Alex to Melville are tired of JHB Water digging up holes in their communities and passing the rehabilitation responsibility to Johannesburg Roads Agency. This nightmare must stop,” he said.
He closed with a new financing proposal: the Johannesburg Urban Infrastructure Capital Platform, an Infrastructure Investment Fund to tackle the city’s R220-billion infrastructure backlog without privatising assets. The proposed ownership is 49% City, 40% private equity and 11% residents.
“There is no money problem, just a trust deficit. That stops with RISE Mzansi,” Mguni said.
“Please go and tell them the good news; RISE Mzansi is an alternative home for progressives who are peace loving, who want to realise social justice in one generation.”