The ANC boosted its state in Gauteng province after it snatched Ward 109 away from the DA at the recent Joburg City Council by-elections.
This coming after its marginal majority gained at the May provincial elections. The new kids on the block, the EFF, again punched high and came third, signalling their coming of age. They consolidated their position in a tripartite relationship of power sharing at the local, provincial and national levels.
The vacancy resulted from the resignation of DA councillor Werner Smit in a ward that includes sections of poverty stricken Alex and dilapidated factories in Marlboro turned into homes combining with affluent Kelvin, Wendywood, Morningside Manor and Eastgate. He quit allegedly from frustration at the lack of cooperation from some city officials in executing approved programmes.
While the victory boosts the ANC, it is expected to also stimulate the DA’s election machinery with two years before the ‘real’ local government election in 2021. This, drawing from the ward’s history of the two parties exchanging political control of the ward since the new political dispensation. The DA held fort from 2000, the ANC from 2006 and 2011 and handing back to the DA in 2016. The by-elections may have caught the DA sleeping. “We will summon our all to reclaim the ward as it will be our turn again,” said DA proportional representative councillor Shadrack Mkhonto about the high-stakes game and sweet trappings of power.
He described Smit’s resignation as unfortunate and was prompted by a negative attitude and lack of interest by officials in their civic duty. “They played politics rather than their service delivery responsibilities.
“Their inaction was akin to sabotage as they knew that withholding their services to the already aggrieved residents would mobilise them to vote for anyone promising to improve on service delivery.”
This, he added, inadvertently handed back the ward to the ANC he claimed had a previous poor service delivery record which his party was trying to correct before the by-elections. Mkhonto also cited laxity in law enforcement against mushrooming shacks as cause for heightened tensions which have been building up for years and before Smit’s term saying, “We couldn’t suddenly stop this tension which was used to create an impression of a DA that was unable to govern and provide service delivery.”
He further attributed their loss to nippy weather which caused a poor turnout and to some voters who were allegedly bussed in from elsewhere. “We have lodged a complaint about their involvement at specific polling stations.”
Also, he said, some voters in Marlboro were unhappy with the encroaching informal settlements whose residents allegedly interrupted service delivery and caused power outages through illegal power connections. “They are concerned of the devaluation of their properties and are unhappy with the promise by the mayor to reconstruct illegal homes in nearby Silverton informal settlement which were razed by the Red Ants under contentious grounds.”
He said while the structures were illegal, the mayor’s instruction complied with the legal requirements that suitable land for proper housing development should be acquired before any demolitions. Mkhonto vowed that his party will reclaim the ward in 2021. “We are fine tuning our election machinery and strategy and are confident of victory.”
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