Now that the posturing and rhetoric that has dominated Western Cape politics in the two months prior to this week’s agreed compromise on the system of local government is over there is one clear victor: the citizens of Cape Town.
In a decision that has been hailed by various commentators as ”mature”, and by the local media as ”the kind of compromise that good politicians make in the interests of the people they serve”, Mayor Helen Zille and provincial minister for local government and housing, Richard Dyantyi decided that Zille’s DA-led coalition would remain intact, while an additional two ANC-headed sub-councils would be added to the 20 existing sub-councils, five of which are ANC-controlled. Zille also agreed to implement the ward committee system.
The compromise was announced suddenly on Tuesday after Minister of Provincial and Local Government, Sydney Mufamadi stepped into the fray. Dyantyi had first announced that he intended to change the system of local government from a mayoral executive to a mayoral committee on September 19.
Zille and the DA originally described the move as a ”power grab that threatened democracy” — an accusation that the local ANC denied, saying it was merely seeking more inclusive government. This week, both sides scrambled to minimise the battle, with Zille reportedly describing it as ”an unfortunate hiccup” and the local ANC saying it got what it wanted.
ANC provincial chairperson James Ngculu told the Mail & Guardian: ”It’s over. Now we can work together and perhaps I can phone her and say, ‘can I come and have a cup of tea?’ People must see at some point that James Ngculu is not seen to be visiting the mayor to fight or to raise an issue but just to say ‘Hi’, I am not a councillor, I am not an official, I am a member of Parliament and the chairperson of the ANC, but people must see that at least we are not fighting,” he said.
He denied that Zille’s coalition had been the ultimate victor, and that the ANC’s acceptance of the new sub-councils was merely a ”face saving exercise”.
”It was never about the chain. It was always about more inclusive government. The two new sub-councils and the implementation of the ward committee system is not a minor concession, it was a critical one that we highlighted from the beginning,” said Ngculu.
The ANC has criticised the DA’s past allocation of township sub-councils as ”racist” because it lumps together seven or eight wards, whereas sub-councils in traditionally white areas have only three or four wards. The perception in poorer areas, said Ngculu, is that people’s needs and issues have not been taken into account.
”The sub-councils are a creative way of governing in poor areas,” he said. He added that the ANC would be deploying two ”non-racial” members to head these new sub-councils.
Ngculu dismissed the idea that the ANC had accepted Mufamadi’s compromise proposal to counter the perception that the ANC could not tolerate the outcome of the March local government elections and had attempted to unseat Zille’s coalition.
”We played our part and we lost [the ability to form a coalition after the election in March]. The formation of a coalition for us was a matter of principle. We had approached some of the smaller parties but found we could not work with them,” he said.
Ngculu said the city would now benefit from more inclusive government and that the time had come to view Zille as the mayor of Cape Town and for everyone to work towards ”making Cape Town great”.
Meanwhile, the multiparty government on Thursday announced that it is holding ”a mass rally to celebrate democracy in Cape Town” in Khayelitsha this weekend. And while the list of guest speakers includes representatives from the DA’s seven coalition partners and the Community Civic Organisation, the ANC is conspicuously absent.