Is Johannesburg on the brink of a major shake-up?

Is Johannesburg heading for big change? Adding impetus to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s intervention for a Potemkin-like clean-up ahead of the November G20 summit in our city, there’s another dynamic.

If council does not pass the adjustment budget tomorrow, it risks falling foul of the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA), which could result in the dissolution of council.

The city would then be placed under administration.

The person with the authority to take this step, Gauteng Finance MEC Lebogang Maile, has given mayor Dada Morero an extension to comply with the MFMA.

“If the municipality fails to adopt an adjustment budget by 18 March 2025, no further extensions would be granted,” he said in a letter to Morero.

Morero asked for an extension after last week’s council meeting collapsed in disarray when it seemed unlikely the budget would pass. There’s no telling what wheeling and dealing has been going on to secure the required 136 votes tomorrow.

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Councillors’ self-interest may play a role. All, including the mayor and MMCs, lose their jobs if council is dissolved. Turkeys don’t vote for Christmas.

Fresh elections would have to be held within 90 days.

This could be the jolt that Joburg needs, rather than the ponderous attentions of Ramaphosa and yet another presidential working group.

When have these groups ever been productive?

Ramaphosa lives in Hyde Park in my ward. There’s no need for him to travel to central Johannesburg or Soweto to see how much the city has deteriorated under the tender care of cadres.

He likes to stroll. Within walking distance of his home, he could find sewage in the road, nonfunctioning traffic signals, potholes and excavations left open for months.

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One block away is an empty lot, perennially overgrown, frequented by vagrants, whom the Johburg Metro Police Department members are incapable of keeping out for long. Streetlights don’t work.

Of course, things are worse downtown, but the seeds of suburban decay are planted across the city.

South Africans are accustomed to Ramaphosa being “shocked” at what is obvious to everyone. Even cocooned in his blue-light cavalcades, he cannot have missed the deterioration of his surroundings.

What would amaze us would be if his presidential working group revitalised South Africa’s greatest city. Adding the title “presidential” to handpicked cadres does not bestow magical powers on them.

A cadre remains a cadre. And cadres mess up. Look at every cadre-run municipality and state-owned entity. Ruined by cadres.

Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi’s apology to Ramaphosa over the state of Joburg is bizarre. He is not the mayor, even if his interference in Gauteng metros accelerated Joburg’s decline.

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Puppeteer Panyaza gave us three dud mayors: Thapelo Amad, Kabelo Gwamanda and Morero.

For that he should apologise, not to Ramaphosa but to ripped-off ratepayers.

Cadres’ eyes light up at the thought of more money. A presidential working group, with access to funds from national government and business, tantalises them.

Don’t underestimate their exploitative greed. Amid Joburg’s water crisis, tanker mafias make a killing. While bankrupt City Power can’t keep the lights on, a connected contractor gets R12 million before doing any work. Common practice in Joburg.

Ramaphosa’s appointees won’t get rid of these leeches.

Dissolution can.

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