The executive musical chairs at the City of Johannesburg will not resolve the intractable service delivery failures it faces. Residents and businesses will have to accept that the changes in leadership in the city is a pantomime performance of Much Ado About Nothing.
The events of the past month have to be unpacked for what they are — a comedy of Shakespearean proportions playing out in the heart of a tragedy.
It is farcical. The man formerly pulling the strings of mayor Kabelo Gwamanda is now the mayor. The ANC’s Dada Morero replaced Gwamanda last week and also appointed a new (old) executive. The only change he made was to shift Gwamanda to community development and fill the post he previously held, that of finance MMC.
He appointed former speaker Margaret Arnolds to this post. Arnolds, an African Independent Congress councillor, returns to the post she held briefly after the first removal of former DA mayor Mpho Phalatse. There is as little clarity now as there was then on what qualifies Arnolds to hold the purse strings of one of the biggest metropolitan budgets on the continent.
While the shifts in the leadership of the city have been welcomed by some quarters, the reality boils down to the ANC’s refusal to read the writing on the wall: its so-called “government of local unity” (GLU) is failing the residents of our richest city.
Here is the real story behind Morero’s appointment as mayor. In June, Gwamanda announced the introduction of a R200 surcharge to all prepaid electricity meters in the city, a move that Morero supported and the ANC backed in council. The surcharge caused an uproar among residents and civil society, who rounded on Gwamanda and called for his resignation.
It should not be relevant that Ekurhuleni is another Gauteng metro governed by a “GLU” — a hairbrained political scheme masterminded by ANC Gauteng chair Panyaza Lesufi and secretary TK Nciza, but it is. There, the EFF’s Nkululeko Dunga was booted from his post to make way for an ANC finance MMC.
Ten days after Gwamanda’s surcharge was announced, the city reversed its luxury SUV over its own dignity, backtracking on its implementation due to the outcry from already overburdened homeowners. Morero was in a fix. After the GLU’s misrule the city’s finances were a shambles and it was desperate to ensure the council approved a R2.5bn loan from the Agence Française de Developpement (AFD), but the ANC’s “GLU partner”, the EFF, was resisting.
The EFF wanted Dunga reinstated as the MMC for finance in Ekurhuleni before voting in favour of the loan for Johannesburg but have yet to present a coherent argument as to how an appointment in another metro was relevant to the citizens of Johannesburg.
Into this unprincipled cesspit sailed ActionSA. It does not form part of the GNU or GLU, nor does it hold any positions in the executive. However, it entered discussions with the ANC on pushing through crucial decisions should its “GLU” partners let it down, as in the EFF’s case on the loan.
In return for helping the ANC max the city’s credit card, ActionSA demanded Gwamanda’s removal and the post of speaker and certain committee positions in the council, to which the ANC agreed.
The ANC likely agreed to ActionSA’s proposal not only because the city’s finances are in a dire state and it desperately needed the loan, but also because Gwamanda was so astonishingly unpopular that he had become an embarrassment for the ANC in the city.
Morero’s take-over of the city changes little. The chaotic and ineffective GLU remains in the driving seat in. ActionSA does have a greater oversight role in the administration due to positions it holds in council, but it is adamant that it does not form part of the GLU. It has only agreed to vote with the GLU where its other partners fail to play ball and when those votes are crucial to improve the lot of Johannesburg residents, it says. Effectively, ActionSA will “loan” the GLU its 44 votes when it sees fit.
The only solution to fixing Johannesburg is to hold a new round of elections. The situation in the city is dire. Insiders say the situation has deteriorated so badly that it will take years to straighten up and will require dedication and discipline at that. Waiting for the 2026 local elections will extend the time required to address the various crises that beset our economic capital.
Joburg is the engine of our economy and its residents, more than most, understand that time is money.
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