Dissolve ANC Gauteng PEC to revive Joburg

If Johannesburg works, South Africa works. If Johannesburg doesn’t work, South Africa doesn’t work.

That’s why it is vital for South Africa’s biggest city – the country’s economic heartland – to be in better shape.

Unfortunately, electing the ANC’s Dada Morero as mayor for a second time will not fix Joburg. And retaining ex-mayor Kabelo Gwamanda as a member of the mayoral committee (MMC) is crazy.

People who created Joburg’s problems remain in charge.

Equally absurd is the shifting of Margaret Arnolds from speaker to finance MMC. According to her Facebook profile, she “studied media philosophy at Unisa”. No mention of any qualification.

Certainly not anything that would equip her to be in charge of Joburg’s R83 billion budget.

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Her African Independent Congress has two seats out of 270 in Joburg, while Gwamanda’s Al Jama-ah won three.

The mayoral committee is littered with tiny parties who do not represent Joburg voters.

By engineering all this, Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi has copied what he did with his provincial Cabinet.

He thwarted the will of the electorate.

He deliberately excluded the DA, whose support in Gauteng increased in the 29 May elections, while the ANC slumped to 34.7%.

In those May elections, no party in Joburg slipped as badly as ActionSA.

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They won only 88 013 votes, shedding 208 332 compared with 2021. This 6.22% would translate to 17 council seats instead of the 44 achieved in 2021.

The party is on the skids. Voting for an ANC mayor and taking the speaker’s chair won’t save ActionSA.

While he has sought to distinguish between the executive (MMCs) and the legislature (speaker), incoherent party leader Herman Mashaba jumbles it all with his pronouncements of what he plans to achieve.

Only the blind faithful will believe that ActionSA legislative “oversight” of the ANC will accomplish what Mashaba couldn’t do in three years as executive mayor.

Yet, there is hope.

While the DA has been calling for the dissolution of council – leading to fresh municipal elections – a different dissolution may provide a solution.

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There is a chance the ANC national leadership may dissolve Lesufi’s provincial executive committee (PEC), just as they did to the KwaZulu-Natal PEC six years ago.

ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula and his team are again busy with KZN, after which they will likely focus on Gauteng.

Panic is evident in Lesufi’s admissions of shortcomings and his bizarre attempts at solutions. (A high-speed train service to Limpopo, really?)

He has misdiagnosed the problems, even blaming corruption on government officials, as if cadres weren’t deployed and enabled by the ANC.

His failed projects and empty promises are among the reasons for the electoral and investment slump in Gauteng.

For as long as anti-GNU Lesufi (Mr 34%) calls the shots, Gauteng and Joburg will suffer.

ALSO READ: DA calls for fresh local government elections: Will it boycott the election of Joburg’s mayor?

Our best hope is that Mbalula and ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa prevail and the ANC national executive committee decides to dissolve the Gauteng PEC.

This would pave the way for a genuine government of provincial unity to include the DA in key positions.

Filtering to metro level, that will trigger Joburg’s rejuvenation. Then South Africa will be on the right road.

If Johannesburg works …