Tshwane residents don’t deserve the city’s politicians

As if seeing the DA pretend to be the EFF for Halloween in the Tshwane council sitting wasn’t bad enough, we were subjected to the kind of leadership that expects us to applaud them for doing basic math.

We can excuse the speaker who would roll over were it not for the desk he so insistently leans on, and we can excuse the chamber looking like a confused airport waiting room for those without lounge access. What we cannot excuse is the behaviour of the people inside that chamber.

I thought the DA were the ones with such lust for the rule of law that they’d salivate over the idea of being asked to leave the chamber so they could bring a review application.

Was it not hilarious to see the wannabe red ants taking videos of their uncharacteristically physically aggressive blue colleagues with a look combining confusion and excitement? You can tell that the fighters were filming the fiasco — feeling closer to their DA colleagues in a way they could never imagine.

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Alas, as hilarious as it is, this is somewhat more of a tragic comedy because the people of Tshwane don’t deserve this lack of care for them from their leadership. At this point, it hardly seems like anybody cares about the people of Tshwane. Politicking and fighting hardly do much for the electorate.

Hearing the mayor proclaim some quick maths to show that it will take 36 years to meet the capital investment demand of 10 years is sadly telling. The people of the city invest so much into the leadership in terms of office space, programmes and salaries and the best they get in return is some quick maths?

You’d think that if you formed the leadership of a whole metro, you’d have more to offer than “we need more money”. With all the existing resources in the metro, you can’t tell me that the priority is getting more resources. With all the members of the city council, you can’t tell me that the priority is who is going to be the mayor.

The type of arrogance required to invest so much time in internal battling to get a mayor who tells us that we need more money, only to have another internal battle, is baffling. It just seems like a silly proposition. If it weren’t against the law to pay your rates and taxes, you’d likely sooner get your granny to subscribe to your Only Fans account.

Is a competent, innovative and invested leadership too much to ask for? It appears so.

We have a portfolio committee for keeping the presidency accountable now. Why? Probably because we expect poor leadership and are pre-empting it with yet another legislative instrument.

ALSO READ: A first for SA: Parliament votes for committee to oversee Presidency’s functions

How has that gone for the people of Tshwane? I’d say not that great. What will a parliamentary presidential accountability institution do? More meetings? More presidential turnover? More engagement? And then what?

At some point, you’ve got to start asking whether you’re getting bang for your buck – and you know you aren’t in Tshwane because they need more bucks.

Gayton McKenzie opens his mouth, spitballs an idea and a couple of months in we’re talking about F1 coming back to South Africa. Leon Schreiber has an idea and all of a sudden Home Affairs doesn’t have a backlog to deal with. Say what you want about the dudes, but tangible results are visible.

Tshwane has a council meeting, elects a new mayor, kicks people out, and claims it needs more money… but even if the results are visible, what do they actually do for the people of Tshwane?