Gauteng mayors on the chopping block

Two metropolitans in Gauteng, Johannesburg and Tshwane could see a change in their executive leadership soon.

Johannesburg mayor Kabelo Gwamanda of the Al-Jama Ah party could face the axe as his largest coalition partner in the municipality, the African National Congress (ANC) is engaging with opposition parties in the city’s council about possible collaboration without Gwamanda as mayor.

This comes amid mounting pressure for him to go, as well as cracks emerging within the current coalition.

Meanwhile, further north in Tshwane, the ANC announced on Friday (19 July) that it intends to submit a motion of no confidence against Democratic Alliance (DA) mayor Cilliers Brink.

The party claims this is because of “a deterioration of the state of governance”. The DA has claimed it is purely opportunistic.

Johannesburg

The Al-Jama ah mayor, who is one of three councillors from his party in the 270-seat council, was elected in May 2023 following a revolving door of executives, which saw five mayors in 18 months.

He was elected through the support of the ANC, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), Patriotic Alliance and other ‘smaller parties,’ who then made up the city’s executive.

The Johannesburg city council is highly fragmented, with no party having an outright majority since the 2016 local government elections. Currently, the council is made up of:

Both The Citizen as well as the Mail & Guardian have reported that there is mounting public pressure against the ANC/EFF/PA and other smaller party coalition led by Gwamanda.

Recently, the Johannesburg Crisis Alliance, made up of numerous civil society organisations, demanded Gwamanda’s resignation, citing “inadequate leadership amidst a worsening governance crisis” in the country’s economic hub.

This put the ANC in an awkward situation, prompting them to look for alternatives for a ‘stable government’ with local government elections just over two years away.

Since the formation of a national coalition or “Government of National Unity (GNU)”—which excludes the EFF—tensions between the ANC and the EFF have arisen, particularly in the economic powerhouse of Gauteng, where they co-govern in numerous metros.

Notably, the EFF has often not voted with its coalition partners in Johannesburg, and the ANC’s Ekurhuleni mayor recently axed the EFF’s Gauteng chairperson from his position as MMC of Finance.

After the EFF recently did not vote with the ANC Johannesburg over a multi-billion rand loan proposal, ANC caucus leader Dada Morero said that they were “very disappointed… especially as they are our partners in government… but working with them is not our decision to make.”

Since then, changes have been seen to be materialising.

ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba, whose party holds a crucial 44 seats in the hung council, told The Citizen that the ANC had approached the party to form a stable working relationship.

Mashaba hinted that a major announcement could be made soon concerning changes in the coalition arrangement in the City of Johannesburg. He added that he told the ANC that ActionSA would only form an agreement with them if Gwamanda did not continue as mayor.

An ActionSA spokesperson confirmed this with BusinessTech, however emphasised that nothing is set in stone.

The possible shake-up could have been exacerbated by the President of South Africa and the ANC’s recent speech.

In his first speech to Parliament, President Cyril Ramaphosa pledged a large-scale initiative which would see “major interventions” in troubled and “unstable” metros and municipalities.

During his speech, he said that it is the partners within the current “Government of National Unity (GNU)” (which excludes that of the EFF) that he is betting on for stability.

While Al-Jama ah is part of the GNU—with its leader Ganief Hendricks, the current Deputy Minister of Social Development, saying that the party joining could have saved Gwamanda’s fate—recent developments have indicated that this may not be the case.

Tshwane

The City of Tshwane, which also has a fragmented council, has also seen an unstable government over the past several years.

After the collapse of an ANC/EFF and other ‘smaller party’ coalition in the metro, Cilliers Brink was elected as mayor in March 2023 with the backing of the DA, ActionSA, Freedom Front Plus and others, who were then appointed to his cabinet

The current composition of the fragmented Tshwane council is:

On 19 July, the ANC regional chairperson Eugene Modise said that the party wants him out as mayor and is set to file a motion of no confidence in the mayor and his executive.

“The motion follows a deterioration of the state of governance, including financial management, and a litany of misrule and a staff component that is despondent,” claimed Modise.

“Since June 2023, we have witnessed the rapid deterioration of governance in political oversight, management, and the financial status of the city,” he added.

This has thrown a spanner in the works as the DA is the ANC’s biggest coalition partner at a national level.

However, the ANC in Tshwane said that they believe the city’s no-confidence vote against Brink will not impact the GNU.

Modise said that this move had been “blessed” by its higher structures.

“They have requested us to vote out the mayor a long time ago,” he said.

Brink can only be voted out if members of his own coalition break rank, given that the current coalition holds a majority of council seats.

The DA Tshwane caucus responded to the announcement by accusing the ANC of protecting unspecified “business interests.”

“We have reason to believe that it is motivated by the private business interests of ANC leaders, as the city has been clamping down on the deep-rooted networks of corruption that have undermined service delivery for far too long,” it said.

Read: Time’s up for ‘broken’ municipalities in South Africa