The City of Johannesburg has finally approved a R2.5bn loan from Agence Française de Développement as the metro faces a R2bn budget shortfall for 2024/25.
The 15-year loan from the Paris-based financial institution initially failed to pass after the EFF did not vote with the ANC. ActionSA also rejected the loan on the basis that ANC Joburg chair Dada Morero, who is also the finance MMC, did not provide the council with some critical details of the loan and because it believed it was too costly.
DA Joburg caucus leader Belinda Kayser-Echeozonjoku said the party noted the loan item was tabled this time with all the requisite information for the council to make an informed decision.
“We have been very clear that good governance is non-negotiable and it is for this reason that we requested more details to be made available to councillors to make an informed decision. It is, however, concerning that this information is only made available when some parties are negotiating for positions in exchange for support for the loan, as has been widely reported,” Kayser-Echeozonjoku said.
“The DA maintains that negotiating positions in exchange for support of loans or any items brought before council, like a surcharge write-off, is not in the best interest of the residents of Johannesburg. This council cannot claim to be an informed decision-making body who holds residents’ best interests at heart while playing cheap politics for positions.”
Approval of the loan comes amid mounting calls for mayor Kabelo Gwamanda to resign as service delivery in the city continues to decline.
On Thursday, a coalition of civil society organisations and research institutes added its voice. In a media briefing at Constitution Hill, the Joburg Crisis Alliance (JCA) bemoaned the “ongoing regression in the quality of services being rendered the city and its entities, much to the detriment of residents”.
The JCA’s convening organisations include the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa), Action for Accountability, Defend Our Democracy and the Johannesburg Inner City Partnership. They were joined at the briefing by Tessa Dooms from political think-tank Rivonia Circle.
The JCA accused Gwamanda of presiding over service delivery lapses including intermittent water supplies since 2023, budget shortfalls, the collapse of road maintenance, an increase in the amount of litter and rubbish on the city’s streets, and shortfalls in providing affordable housing.
JCA co-convener Neeshan Balton lashed out at the mayor for the “arrogant, uncaring and insensitive” handling of a R200 surcharge for prepaid electricity customers.
Gwamanda is from the Al Jama-ah party, which holds three seats in the 270-seat council. The city is governed by a coalition of parties including the ANC, EFF and the Patriotic Alliance (PA).
Balton said Gwamanda and his mayoral cabinet should resign as they were incapable of running a city with a budget of over R80bn. He said they would approach business to add its voice to calls for their resignation.
“Our call for change in the leadership of the city is not made in favour of any political party. We hold the view that whoever assumes leadership in the city must be held to account, irrespective of which political party they represent,” Balton said.
The JCA has called on civil society organisations, clubs and societies, faith-based organisations and concerned residents to join a demonstration against Gwamanda at the Joburg metro centre on Saturday.
Calls for Gwamanda to step down have grown recently, with opposition councillors arguing he isn’t suitably qualified to lead the country’s economic hub.
Outa CEO Wayne Duvenage said if Gwamanda was replaced by someone who was equally not up to the task, “the problem is not going to go away”.
“We’ve had nine mayors since 2016. We can’t have this continuation. The management of the city ... is broken. The protest on Saturday is one arrow in the quiver to hold the city management to account,” he said.
Dooms said: “For far too long we have waited and hoped politicians are going to save us.”
The call for Gwamanda to resign “is about historic failure of leadership in the country. The call we are making is about political consequences. If we don’t have consequences, we will never see change in our city.”
Defend Our Democracy’s Rev Moss Ntlha said Joburg was a great city but its leadership had been disappointing. He added that the era of unaccountability was over.
ANC Johannesburg regional secretary Sasabona Manganye on Monday told Business Day: “There is no intention to remove Gwamanda through a vote of no confidence. He will resign as mayor [in about] August. We are still in discussions with his party.”
Al Jama-ah president Ganief Hendricks, however, told Business Day on Tuesday that Gwamanda was not going anywhere, adding that the EFF and PA continue to back him.
On Monday, ActionSA national chair Michael Beaumont said the party had placed conditions on its support for a new government in Joburg, including the removal of Gwamanda and the immediate reversal of the R200 surcharge imposed by City Power. He said Gwamanda’s tenure had been an “unmitigated failure with the evidence of the downward spiral of Johannesburg evident all around the city”.
Gwamanda’s election as mayor in June 2023 marked the sixth time political power had changed hands in the metro since 2021. He is the ninth mayor of Joburg since the 2016 local government elections. His predecessors were Parks Tau (2016), Herman Mashaba (2016-19), Geoff Makhubo (2020-21), Mpho Moerane (2021), Jolidee Matongo (2021), Mpho Phalatse (2021-22), Dada Morero (2022) and Thapelo Amad (2023).
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