The intention of Helen Zille, Cape Town’s new executive mayor, to dismiss African National Congress-aligned city manager Wallace Mgoqi will come as no surprise to anyone who has been observing the soap opera that constitutes local politics in the city. His likely departure will follow the pattern started in 2000, when the Democratic Alliance bundled out then city manager Andrew Boraine when the party took control of the city.
Countering allegations that Zille is embarking on a political purge of ANC-aligned officials, the new mayor initially argued that assessments of the existing management team would be based on the performance of the individuals in question. On this score, Mgoqi may well have struggled to keep his job, making it ironic that Zille has, instead, focused on the legality of the extension of his contract.
In his last full year of tenure as city manager (the 2004/05 financial year), the city was only able to spend 61% of its proposed budget compared with Johannesburg’s expenditure of 104%, 93,3% by Tshwane (Pretoria) and 92,5% by eThekwini (Durban) — cities of a similar size, with similar scales of development challenges. In addition, as the officer ultimately responsible for signing-off on a significant number of tender irregularities in the city over the past few years, Mgoqi’s governance record is also questionable.
But these considerable concerns are probably less weighty than Zille’s underlying objection to Mgoqi: a lack of trust, arising from his appointment by the previous mayor, Nomaindia Mfeketo, along with a number of other senior managers who replaced a DA-appointed team. Mgoqi’s dismissal will probably add fuel to yet another round of tit-for-tat firings — when the ANC manages to wrestle back control of the city, possibly at the next floor-crossing. This cycle will only act to further destabilise the city’s administration. Ultimately, the need for political affiliation among officials will likely override consideration of the real task at hand, delivery to residents.
A possible solution to this escalating problem might have been to give Mgoqi’s team an opportunity to execute the decisions of a consensus-based, multiparty executive committee system, rather than relying heavily on rapport between the mayoral committee system, headed by a powerful executive mayor.
It is interesting to note that the DA chose the executive mayoral model in light of its election manifesto commitment: “The DA will use the executive committee system, not executive mayors, to govern cities. This will ensure that power is not centralised in one person and that all residents are represented in the key decision-making bodies.”
In a similar vein and of equally disturbing consequence is Zille’s intention, made clear in her election speech, to “conduct a full forensic audit of the city’s finances and administrative structure”, ostensibly to deal with “corruption and nepotism”. According to a DA statement, the envisaged audit would be carried out by a standing committee on public accounts to review past meetings of tender award committees in the city.
There may well be merit to an investigation of controversial tender decisions around a limited number of large contracts, but there are also serious and detrimental implications to freezing contracts in an arbitrary manner for ongoing work being done in the city. While the temporary halt to the contract to upgrade Green Point Stadium in preparation for the Soccer World Cup has proven most controversial, many contractors are carrying out necessary work on the maintenance of infrastructure and the delivery of essential services. It is important that such contracts should not be unreasonably delayed.
Zille’s moratorium also includes a freeze on new appointments and the conversion of contract staff to permanent. Given the crisis around the lack of capacity in local government, frequently highlighted by the DA, the freeze on new appointments and permanent contracts also seems extreme and especially disruptive.
Andre Adams, provincial secretary of the South African Municipal Workers’ Union, has voiced concern on the issue, saying that a number of low-level workers had been promised by the city that their contracts would be made permanent on July 1, and had a legitimate expectation of permanent employment after working without full-time benefits for a number of years. Delaying new appointments and the finalisation of permanent contracts with mostly modestly paid part-time workers in the city will only harm residents and the workers affected.
Zille’s extreme approach is, however, simply following through on the DA’s election promise to its constituency to take back Cape Town from the ANC. While the secretive behaviour of the previous mayor and the performance of the city manager fuelled the basis for such drastic intervention, the call for an audit of all decisions made by the previous council is sensationalist and potentially debilitating. Even worse, such behaviour deepens a cycle of retaliation, which is set to seriously undermine the sustainability of Cape Town’s city management, setting up residents as the ultimate victims.
In December last year, we suggested in Business Day that there is a link between the drop in expenditure in Cape Town (compared with other large cities) and the disruptive influence of DA-ANC politics. Our assertion that the DA started the series of political purges in 2000 was indignantly denied by then-DA councillor in Cape Town, Belinda Walker. Walker contended that the DA “put in place a top team of the city manager and 10 executive directors” in 2000, while “the ANC … dismissed the city manager and six of these directors” in 2002.
However it is phrased, managerial dismissals — followed by new appointments each time the city is under new leadership — and the suspension of projects by Zille point to an alarming myopia on the part of politicians in what was once a well-run city.
All financial data used in this article was sourced from National Treasury publications, based on financial reports submitted to the National Treasury over the past four years by municipalities
Kevin Allan is a local government consultant and was previously special adviser to the provincial and local government minister. Karen Heese is an independent economist