In the shuffling madness of Johannesburg politics, ActionSA can’t be blamed for trying to ditch two mayoral committee portfolios where their MMCs underperformed.
When the multiparty coalition took over after the 2021 elections, ActionSA were given responsibility for transport, which includes the Joburg Roads Agency (JRA). Think potholes, broken pavements and faulty traffic signals. And a CEO with questionable qualifications.
JRA was a mess when they took over, but ActionSA’s founding leader is partly responsible for the shambles. In 2018, he failed to deal with substantive, publicised allegations of IFP/EFF corruption in JRA.
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Inherited corruption also bedevils the economic development portfolio – including the Joburg Property Company (JPC) and the Joburg Market – which ActionSA held.
I recently told the JPC their tardiness over illegalities, including the unlawful occupation of a city-owned bowling club was not “completely unacceptable. Such tardiness and lack of response would not be tolerated in the private sector”.
When the ActionSA offered to give up these portfolios in recent negotiations, it was not a magnanimous gesture. In return, they wanted the key positions of speaker and chair of chairs – effectively taking control of the legislature – plus the chair of an unspecified Section 79 oversight committee. This would have improved their position and been out of kilter with their 44 seats in council.
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ActionSA’s proposal would also have disproportionately strengthened the Patriotic Alliance (PA), who have eight seats. The PA would have been in a better position than they were before double-crossing the coalition in September. The PA is proudly close to the ANC.
In September last year, the PA’s Charles Cilliers said on TV: “If anyone doesn’t understand that we have an agreement with the ANC nationally, and we are on reasonably good terms with the ANC at national level, then they don’t understand what happened.”
In the same week, PA deputy leader Kenny Kunene thanked the ANC’s Paul Mashatile for facilitation. A vote for the PA is a vote for the ANC.
This week, the PA’s Gayton McKenzie and ANC Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi flanked puppet mayor Thapelo Amad at a media briefing. Amad’s election was ridiculed on Twitter by many, including President Cyril Ramaphosa’s speech writer, Saul Musker.
ANC supporters were among Twitter users describing Amad as a clown and palooka. So, not everyone in the ANC is happy with the Johannesburg arrangement, even if it is temporary.
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This has implications for the stability of governance at multiple levels, with elections due next year. The house of cards which Lesufi and company have built in order to take over Gauteng metros could collapse if enough ANC members take umbrage at bizarre candidate choices.
The proposed arrangements also depend on cooperation between the PA and the EFF. This may not be sustainable. The PA leadership, aligned to the left of the ANC, have a history of mutual antagonism with EFF leader Julius Malema.
McKenzie has previously called him a thug, while Kunene called him a cockroach, resulting in an Equality Court case. Yet we must not pin our hopes solely on what happens when thieves fall out. Those ranged against the ANC will fare better when not riven by damaged egos of aggrieved exes. Let’s refocus.
