In Johannesburg, incoming mayor Dada Morero cautioned long-suffering residents on his appointment in August, “Do not expect major improvements while I’m in charge” — and has duly delivered on this promise. . (Lubabalo Lesolle/Gallo Images)
The cities of Tshwane and Johannesburg have followed similarly traumatic leadership scripts over the past few years, flipping mayors like pancakes in the thin highveld air while basic service delivery has faltered.
When, towards the end of last year, both cities shuffled their coalition cards and elected new executive mayors — again — few held their breath in anticipation of meaningful improvements.
But, since then, the tales of the two cities have started to diverge.
Tracking their current trajectories is a fascinating study of the power of motivated individuals to make a difference in coalition governments.
In Johannesburg, incoming mayor Dada Morero cautioned long-suffering residents on his appointment in August, “Do not expect major improvements while I’m in charge” — and has duly delivered on this promise.
Morero is the eighth executive mayor of Johannesburg since the 2016 local government election (which ushered in the era of multi-party metro governments).
In his defence, his caution was a mealy-mouthed effort to mitigate expectations of an administration entering office with a short runway leading to next year’s local government elections — and little in the way of financial reserves. Even so, considering the precarious position of his party (the ANC) in Gauteng and its metros, his words were fundamentally dull and uninspiring.
In Tshwane, on the other hand, since Nasiphi Moya’s appointment in October as the city’s sixth executive mayor since 2016, the new administration has hit the ground running to begin to fix breakages that have hampered governance and delivery for decades.
Despite having to navigate an even shorter runway than Morero’s, Moya is showing considerable determination to get Tshwane flying again.
Both cities are on their knees, but there seems to be a greater urgency for Tshwane to rise to its feet.
Johannesburg is plagued by fundamental service delivery problems: the unreliable provision of water and electricity, little road maintenance, broken traffic lights, inadequate waste removal, criminality, hijacked buildings and urban degeneration.
Instead of focusing on fixing these issues through maintenance programmes and strong political and administrative leadership, a culture of blaming all problems on an endless financial crisis has evidently taken root in the city.
Tshwane’s problems are no less intense, but instead of blaming her predecessors for delivering a financial crisis, Moya (who represents ActionSA) has assembled a team intent on making a difference.
While some may hasten to point out that the reason for the difference between Johannesburg and Tshwane is that one coalition is led by the ANC, and the other, not, this argument is simplistic because the ANC is strongly represented in both metro governments.
ActionSA supporters will claim credit for Hammanskraal finally being provided with clean drinking water return, as proof of the new Tshwane administration’s success. The truth is that former mayor Cilliers Brink (Democratic Alliance) and the former minister of water and sanitation, Senzo Mchunu, deserve most of the credit. That’s okay; it’s politics.
The fact is that areas of Hammanskraal now have clean water, not thanks to any individual or individual party, but to a leadership collective.
It is this spirit of enthusiastic collectivism that Moya has done well to harness and trickle down to energise Tshwane’s officials.
Both Johannesburg and Tshwane are weighed down with Eskom debt. Tshwane recently announced a “landmark agreement” with Eskom over repaying its historic R6.5 billion debt.
Again, some may perceive this as a consequence of political affiliations, a product of the deputy mayor of Tshwane and the minister of electricity being members of the same party.
Once again, this is simplistic. Morero, also an ANC representative, has had more time in office than Moya, but has thus far only succeeded in securing an agreement on the “process to resolve” Johannesburg’s debt to Eskom.
The lesson that Tshwane is teaching is that despite ideological incongruencies, effective working cultures can deliver functional coalition governments that get things done.
It is early days in the timelines of the present Johannesburg and Tshwane coalitions.
The strong working relationship between parties in Tshwane’s council points to the possibility of effective inter-party relations at all levels of government.
South Africans don’t expect miracles. They want to see simple signs of a working government: cleaning their cities, enforcing planning by-laws, managing municipal service provision and dealing with illegal water and electricity connections, and reclaiming unsafe and hijacked buildings.
When citizens recognise political will, that politicians are willing to work hard and stop placing their political interests above those of the electorate, hope for a brighter future will return — and, with it, political accountability. The space for the lazy and corrupt will diminish.
South Africans will benefit from the lessons Morero and Moya are teaching today.
Matthew Cook is the national chairperson of the Good party and a City of Johannesburg councillor. The party has a councillor in Tshwane serving as the MMC for economic development and spatial planning.