President Cyril Ramaphosa rushed to be at the scene of the fire that killed seventy-four people – including 12 children – after a blaze in a five-storey building, which was being occupied by homeless people. More than 50 others were injured.

“It’s a wake-up call for us to begin to address the situation of housing in the inner city,” President Ramaphosa said. He should know: his party – the ANC – is part of the governing coalition running the collapsing city.

The article below is from the Financial Mail

Chaos wrapped in a riddle inside an enigma

Amid the scheming and feuding that marks Joburg politics, only the EFF appears to be content

31 AUGUST 2023 – 05:00 NATASHA MARRIAN

There are no easy answers to the political conundrum in the City of Joburg. 

The ANC, the EFF and the Patriotic Alliance (PA) are  co-governing the council,  with an ever-confused-looking Kabelo Gwamanda — whose party, Al Jama-ah, won 1% of the vote — as executive mayor. 

On one level, everything seems to be going swimmingly — the PA’s Kenny Kunene, who is a member of the mayoral committee for transport, recently held a bash for staff complete with champagne (Moët & Chandon),  Hennessy and whisky — which he claims he bought with his own money.

Last month, Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi rushed to the site of the fatal gas explosion in Bree Street in the central business district to try to exercise some adult supervision as Gwamanda trailed along in his usual dazed state. The blast, the cause of which no-one in the city administration has yet been able to pinpoint, caused damage in the region of R180m. One person died and 48 were injured.

Meanwhile Joburg residents are up in arms  over exorbitant property valuations, which are driving up their rates bills against the broader economic backdrop of eye-watering interest rates and inflation. 

The ANC-EFF pact, dubbed a “government of local unity”, has helped the ANC to get back into the driving seat in most of the Gauteng councils that it lost after the 2021 local government elections. Only, the EFF set somewhat onerous conditions that led to Al Jama-ah naming the mayor of Joburg.

The hapless provincial ANC in  Gauteng was outmanoeuvred by the red berets, who are now largely in control of Ekurhuleni metro — a situation causing some bewilderment in  the ANC’s national leadership

The hapless provincial ANC in  Gauteng was outmanoeuvred by the red berets, who are now largely in control of Ekurhuleni metro — a situation causing some bewilderment in  the ANC’s national leadership. 

President Cyril Ramaphosa recently weighed in on the  Joburg issue, saying in his view the ANC’s Dada Morero should be mayor.  His comments at a Gauteng ANC imbizo followed criticism by the ANC’s veterans league and youth league about the arrangements with the EFF and the PA — which the veterans dubbed a party of “convicts”. 

Gwamanda represents an embarrassing counterpoint to the ANC’s professed commitment to “strict criteria” as it now selects candidates to represent it in provincial legislatures and parliament come next year’s elections. Nowhere do its guidelines refer to filling key posts with candidates who have zero record in government. 

ActionSA, which has long wanted to see the back of Gwamanda, last month lodged a motion of no confidence in him that was  scheduled to be heard this week. But the initiative fell flat because the DA refused to vote along with it. 

By all accounts, the motion was dead in the water anyway, given that PA leader Gayton McKenzie had clearly and publicly said he would vote to retain Gwamanda. 

According to a letter to ActionSA from DA leader John Steenhuisen, his party refuses to work with the PA, which he said had “betrayed” it three times in the past. Instead, Steenhuisen asked ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba to support a motion to dissolve the Joburg council. This would result in  fresh elections and, the DA hopes, end the chaos that has resulted in five mayors since 2021. 

Mashaba is having none of it, accusing the DA of putting the recently signed multiparty charter in jeopardy.  ActionSA appears confident that the PA will vote with it against Gwamanda, despite what McKenzie has said previously.

The DA’s motion to have the council dissolved is unlikely to succeed unless the ANC feels strongly enough about fielding Morero as a candidate to support the initiative. Opposition parties will not have enough votes  to dissolve the council without the support of either the ANC or EFF.

A further complication in Joburg politics in particular is the combative relationship between the DA and ActionSA, which has persisted despite the claims of co-operation at the recent multiparty convention. Unless the ANC shifts its stance in Joburg, no major leadership change for the metro is likely. 

Joburg is a prime example of a ruling coalition in which  none of the parties is happy  — except perhaps the EFF.