Politicians continue to play musical chairs with South Africa’s richest city
The City of Joburg is set to get yet another mayor – potentially the fourth one since September 2022.
Joburg’s mayoral drama has been raging since 2022, when former mayor – the DA’s Mpho Phalatse – was booted from the position. Twice.
Phalatse was voted out for the first time in September 2022, in a dramatic motion of no confidence that was sprung on her and her multi-party coalition from within.
Phalatse was initially voted into the position by a multi-party coalition comprising the DA, ACDP, FF Plus, COPE, IFP, and ActionSA, with the PA joining later.
Due to political disagreements among the coalition parties, COPE and PA voted against their partners, resulting in Phalatse’s ouster. She was replaced by the ANC’s Sello Morero.
This vote was ultimately declared unlawful by the courts, and Phalatse was reinstated. However, following the festive season break, she was out again after another successful (and this time lawful) vote of no confidence in January 2023.
Following her final ouster, Phalatse was replaced by Al Jama-ah’s Thapelo Amad.
Amad was voted in as mayor of Joburg by an ANC/EFF/PA coalition which included smaller parties as well. However, he has now resigned ahead of yet another vote of no confidence against a mayor in the city.
Amad was sworn in as mayor at the end of January and remained in the position for just under three months. The city is now looking to appoint a new mayor on 2 May 2023 – potentially its fourth since September last year.
Gayton McKenzie, the leader of the Patriotic Alliance and member of the coalition that put Amad in power, said the former mayor was out of his depth and that “he (didn’t) understand what he was getting himself into”.
“It’s better that he goes out now (rather) than finding himself in more trouble later,” McKenzie told ENCA.
Responding to Amad’s resignation, the DA said that it would once again nominate Phalatse as its mayoral candidate.
Musical chairs
As politicians continue to play musical chairs over the mayorship of the city, service delivery and city residents continue to suffer from the instability.
This is particularly notable in the context of the ongoing load shedding crisis hitting South Africa.
Before being voted out of power in January, Phalatse announced big plans to secure and source private generation to help the city escape at least some of the rolling blackouts.
However, as councillors were replaced across portfolios, these plans were left up in the air with no indication of where they might land.
Meanwhile, the current MMC for finance and former mayor Sello Morero, announced a different plan at the start of April, saying the city needed 24 months to do away with load shedding through private-public partnerships.
With uncertainty lingering about who will be next in line for their turn as mayor, there is no clear indication that these plans will stick.
Changes incoming
In response to the confusion that has stemmed from coalition governments on a local government level, the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) is planning to have a new system of governing coalitions by the next term of local government elections in 2026.
The department has stated that local coalition instability can greatly affect the municipality’s ability to implement policies and bylaws, make senior management appointments, and adopt a budget.
Through further private member bills, the DA aims to also put in place laws which reform the threshold of a motion of no confidence, introduce an electoral threshold in local government to stop over-fragmentation in a coalition and extend the time in which a mayor must be elected, among others.
The ANC’s big plan to get back in power in Cape Town, Tshwane and other major metros
The ruling national party ANC is, however, also looking into coalition governments, seeing them as a threat to their majority rule.
The former Gauteng premier, David Makhura, said during an ANC national executive committee meeting on 24 April that the party wants to overhaul the way major metros, including Joburg, run their executive committees – ensuring that the ANC has representation in portfolios, even in cities where it does not have an outright majority.
Makhura said that coalitions are a challenge to the country’s democracy, and they occur due to people not trusting a single party with the full mandate of the country.
The ANC outlined a measure to overhaul government in metros. Makhura said that South Africa currently has two executive systems in place in municipalities: an Executive Mayoral System (EMS) and a Collective Executive System (CES).
EMSs operate where a council elects a mayor, and the mayor has the executive power to appoint other members to the executive committee
A CES, however, is the preferred method for the ANC and has parties represented in the executive in proportion to the electoral outcomes.
According to the ANC, the collective system is more dependable and consistent. The party believes that issues primarily arise in municipalities that operate under the mayoral system.
On 23 April, both the DA’s Consitution Nineteenth Amendment Bill and the Local Government: Municipal Structures Amendment Bill entered Parliament to begin the legislative process of stabilising coalitions in the country.
Although motions of no confidence are necessary for accountability, they can be misused at the local government level, said the DA. To ensure effective service delivery, it is necessary to limit their frequency and establish clear grounds for moving and voting on them.
Firewalling governments against such disruptions will benefit citizens more than the current situation. Coalition governments can be elected and pass budgets that they may not be able to implement, making it difficult to hold them accountable for governance practices and service delivery.
Parliament must create a legislative framework that guarantees governance stability and dependable service delivery, said the opposition party.
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