The game of political musical chairs, which long-suffering residents and ratepayers of Johannesburg have endured in recent years, resumed this week. When the music paused on Friday evening, the ANC’s Dada Morero had been installed as mayor, again. The deposed, much-criticised incumbent, Kabelo Gwamanda, had quit before being pushed.
The vote puts Morero, the ANC’s Joburg regional chair, who was mayor for 25 days in September 2022, back in the hot seat. He will preside over a bankrupt city, brought to its knees by the familiar concoction of misgovernance, corruption and general maladministration.
Good luck to Morero, but it would be difficult to top the misadventure that was the inglorious reign of Gwamanda, who, for all his supposed incompetence, is now MMC for community development.
Shortly after he took over last year, blocks of Lillian Ngoyi Street (formerly Bree, a major thoroughfare) were destroyed in a mysterious gas explosion. A year and millions of rand later, much of the street is still unusable, a grim monument to Gwamanda’s underwhelming tenure.
Not long afterwards, a fire broke out at the Usindiso shelter, a building hijacked by criminals from under the administration’s noses. Seventy-six people died, a tragedy followed by the usual ducking of accountability. The city was literally falling apart.
On top of these two landmark disasters, Joburgers have increasingly had to tolerate a crumbling road system, water and electricity shortages in spite of soaring bills, and a city centre that only the bravest would venture into. Remote work has accelerated the exodus of the best to greener pastures, here and abroad, leaving Joburg as a city with a lot of history, but not much future.
It shouldn't be left to the politicians alone to decide the fate of this great city
So palpable has Joburg’s downward spiral become that former mayor Herman Mashaba’s ActionSA momentarily dismounted its “no truck with the ANC” high horse to join forces in dumping Gwamanda. Ironically, it puts the ANC in power more safely than it has felt recently, as the biggest party but short of a straight majority. But it does land ActionSA the speaker's post.
Which would all be to the good if the problem could indeed be blamed on Gwamanda alone, or even mostly. Let’s not forget, he took over from the equally hapless Thapelo Amad, his party colleague, which means in mathematical terms two-thirds of Al Jama-ah's three councillors have already served as mayor. How the imposition of not one, but two unsuitable mayors from a tiny party can be interpreted as an honest reflection of the voters' will is beyond rational explanation.
Of course, and conveniently too, there will be those who will blame “coalition politics” for this extraordinary state of affairs. Some might question whether a coalition between the two biggest parties, the ANC and the DA, might not have been a better route to the city’s leadership stability rather than the ANC’s decision to partner with several minority parties.
Meanwhile, the agencies responsible for service delivery, such as Johannesburg Water, City Power and the Johannesburg Roads Agency, are not fulfilling their mandated tasks, while their putative managers and superfluous boards enjoy high living at the city's expense.
Even the city library, once a temple of learning and edification for young and old, has been closed to the public since 2021 for renovations. It was meant to reopen in February, but this has, unsurprisingly, been postponed to next year. Ditto the same careless guardianship of any number of the city’s public facilities.
The removal of Gwamanda should signal hope and at the very least an awareness of a growing tide of public and stakeholder resentment and anger at the looting and misgovernance of the city. Would it be asking too much to expect the parties in council to prioritise fixing the city for its citizens over positioning themselves for the 2026 local government elections?
It shouldn't be left to the politicians alone to decide the fate of this great city. The prosperity of the country is closely allied to its economic fortunes. Meanwhile, a broad range of interest groups will want to ensure the adoption of policies and practices that are best for the city. They must make their voices heard if Joburg is to thrive once again.
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