If the ANC in Gauteng is a yardstick for the state of national politics, SA is in deep trouble.
Premier Panyaza Lesufi was once widely described as a thoughtful, erudite politician, but since his ascent to provincial chair of the party his politics have become populist, vacuous and frankly dangerous. Perhaps he is defaulting to his erstwhile role as a spin doctor, but his politics has become one of smoke and mirrors, lies and deception.
This does not refer to his battle in Gauteng with the DA — in the province, the DA remains the official opposition, and that tension is both natural and necessary.
Lesufi has become the face of the anti-government of national unity sentiment inside the ANC, making him a sought-after politician for journalists and podcasters hungry for dissent inside the party after the historic 2024 general election.
What both the DA’s rounding on Lesufi and his attempt to paint himself as a victim of ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula mask is that the guy has actually failed the province in a big way.
This was already clear in the run-up to the 2024 election. Lesufi launched various initiatives, amid much fanfare, to bolster the ANC’s share of the vote in the province by tackling crime and unemployment. He launched the Nasi iSpani programme and rolled out the recruitment of “crime wardens” to tackle eye-watering criminality in the country’s most populous province.
Launched in 2023, both of these projects have fallen flat. The lauded crime wardens have since been withdrawn from the streets to ensure that they are properly trained. Letting untrained civilians loose on dangerous criminals was simply irresponsible, placing them and the communities they were meant to protect at risk.
The unoriginal Nasi iSpani programme — a spin on a similar programme launched by his predecessor as premier, David Makhura during his tenure, called Tshepo 1 Million — has suffered considerable setbacks, such as a halt in contracts and the failure to pay participants.
While Lesufi pushed hard to ensure the ANC controlled all the municipalities in Gauteng — even defying the national ANC to do it — the one Gauteng municipality the ANC won outright in 2021, Lesedi, is falling apart, unable to pay water authorities. It has now emerged that in Mogale City, another municipality controlled by the ANC through a coalition — raw sewage is running through its streets.
News24’s Sikonathi Mantshantsha reported on Thursday that the department of water & sanitation had paid the municipality over R300m to repair its sewerage infrastructure since 2019. Yet 12 of the municipality's 22 pump stations remain broken. The municipality was dumping sewage into water systems and at heritage sites, the report said.
The 10 public hospitals with the most complaints to the health ombudsman are all run by the Gauteng department of health, which is notorious for corruption allegations and mismanagement. While the department is buckling under budget cuts, it reportedly also spends more than R13m on salaries for suspended staff.
Lesufi’s stance on race is also contrary to the ANC’s historical nonracialism. His handling of the racism allegations at Pretoria Girls’ High School earlier this year has been sharply criticised by former president Thabo Mbeki after a probe conducted by his foundation.
Lesufi has a lot on his plate given the state of the ANC in the province, which was arguably hit hardest by the electorate in the 2024 election. The party performed worse in KwaZulu-Natal from a share of vote perspective, but this was a direct result of the emergence of former president Jacob Zuma’s MK party.
Gauteng, on the other hand, has long been on notice by the electorate, and it was only President Cyril Ramaphosa’s ascent to the party presidency and the ensuing “Ramaphoria” that saved it in 2019. The result of the 2024 election is a stark indication that the ANC in Gauteng is back in the crosshairs of fed-up voters in the province.
It is strange then that the Gauteng ANC’s chair and provincial premier is not knuckling down and getting to work to tackle the multiple crises afflicting the province, but is instead instigating political battles inside and outside the ANC and cosying up to the likes of Zuma’s anti-constitutional MK party. He also frequently pens aggressively defiant missives on social media.
Perhaps he is hoping this will be his route to political relevance when the ANC is relegated to the opposition benches in Gauteng in the next election.
• Marrian is Business Day editor-at-large.
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