To say South Africa’s major political parties have been a disappointment to voters would be an understatement. They have betrayed voters’ trust, and it’s doubtful that they can regain their confidence with what they’ve promised voters in the upcoming local government elections.
This is nowhere clearer than in Johannesburg. Public services and infrastructure are collapsing rapidly. When the largest party in the country, the ANC, which has run Johannesburg for much of the past 30 years, began eating itself alive more than a decade ago there was hope that its splinters would be disruptors that provided voters with a credible alternative.
Those hopes have since been dashed. The party is continuing to tear itself apart, and the alternatives are just as disappointing. Johannesburg mayor Dada Morero, who apparently wants to stay in the job, openly insults residents in public meetings. He might not be personally facing criminal charges, but many in his party and administration are.
As matters stand the party still has no confirmed candidate who will contest against the DA’s Helen Zille, who has been running a campaign of theatrics fuelled by the ANC’s ineptitude.
The DA did run the city for a few years, but its self-sabotage led to its ouster and the return of the ANC. Its then mayor, Herman Mashaba, left the party to set up ActionSA, and party leader Mmusi Maimane formed Build One SA.
The EFF, on the other hand, has gained from playing kingmaker at times. When the Gauteng ANC decided to keep the DA out of power-sharing in the province it opened the door for the EFF to share power. Its former Ekurhuleni finance MMC, Nkululeko Dunga, is now Gauteng finance MEC.
Jacob Zuma’s MK party is too new to rate, at least in Johannesburg. It wasn’t in existence in the most recent municipal elections.
When voters began to reject the ANC from 2016 the party resorted to exercising power through stealth. Cynically, it sponsored candidates from smaller parties such as Al-Jama-ah (Kabelo Gwamanda and Thapelo Amad) and the DA’s Mpho Phalatse.
Two minority parties, ActionSA and Gayton McKenzie’s PA, wield outsized influence in the city. This is due in part to their anti-immigrant rhetoric but also that many residents are fed up with the bigger parties.
As disenchantment with the bigger parties grew South Africans pinned their hopes on a relatively new phenomenon: independents. But rather than being more effective they have generally turned out to be damp squibs.
Meanwhile, Johannesburg amounts to a falling knife for its residents and ratepayers to catch. Water supply is erratic and the city only recently settled its multibillion-rand debt to Eskom.
Households and businesses are battling economic hardship caused by slow growth amid a rising cost of living. The latest Eskom results point to another emerging crisis: that most households cannot afford the tariffs they have to pay for electricity. When they do, the city often doesn’t pass on the revenue to Eskom.
The private sector has stepped in to help save Johannesburg, because if the city doesn’t work, Gauteng doesn’t work optimally either, and the entire country is compromised.
But this intervention hasn’t been without its challenges. Like the core of the ANC, Johannesburg’s regional ANC leadership has strong antibusiness instincts. Business has struggled to find willing political interlocutors from the city.
The private sector has stepped in to help save Johannesburg, because if the city doesn’t work, Gauteng doesn’t work optimally either, and the entire country is compromised.
Infighting has distracted the ANC-led administration from the task of governing on behalf of Johannesburg residents instead of wrangling ANC factions.
Sensibly, the offer for help is apolitical. Still, extra guardrails should be erected before the November polls so that capital’s help is not used to unfairly advantage one party.
Business won’t be on the ballot paper. It can’t succeed in a partnership with statists who distrust it. It needs to partner with political pragmatists who care about a safe, clean, functioning city.
The bigger parties’ proposed solutions are expensive and too complex to implement. Dismantling the plethora of municipal entities will take years to achieve, for example, and so is the proposal to reconfigure municipal architecture. Johannesburg residents need running water, affordable electricity and safe streets.
Some of the smaller parties offer a glimmer of hope. Add to that the fact that the SACP will, for the first time, not support the ANC. That there are so many parties shouldn’t be a problem. What matters most is that voters are given a choice to hear competing visions for reviving the fortunes of this once great city.
Business support is required to enable a diversity of alternatives to be presented to voters and, ultimately, to have effective political interlocutors to fix the city.
• Dludlu is a former editor of The Sowetan.
Business Day
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