Battle for Gauteng metros kicks off ahead of final election registration week

A fierce battle for Gauteng’s biggest metros Johannesburg and Tshwane has commenced, as parties’ campaign activities picked up pace this week.

As the African National Congress (ANC) fights to maintain its hold over Johannesburg in the coming local government elections, the Democratic Alliance (DA) is hoping to keep running Tshwane with both on shaky coalition grounds. The DA says majority wins are the best case scenario to bring back stability to city councils, but parties are already preparing to negotiate for coalitions.

The ANC Johannesburg caucus has yet to announce a candidate to run for the coming polls, but have hinted at the possibility of backing its first woman candidate for the metro.

In recent days the mayors of Gauteng’s big cities have also been embarking on public engagements in their official capacities, ostensibly to fast-track service delivery issues, which have been pertinent in the run-up to the election.

“More pressing matters” than ribbon cutting ceremonies

Current Johannesburg mayor Jolidee Matongo attended the opening of a R135 million multi-purpose sports facility in Brixton, Johannesburg, that was well attended by members of the ANC’s Ward 26 members.

Community members who spoke to The Citizen said while they welcome the city’s investment into the facility, they have far more pressing matters facing them.

A lack of access to affordable housing and rampant joblessness haunts the ageing neighbourhood, which has seen little development over the past ten years.

Also Read: No South Africans, no business, says Mashaba in election campaign

Parties trotting out the promises

Matongo says the ANC election promises for Johannesburg will focus on attracting investment in the city by dealing more urgently with crime. The party also wants to focus the next few years on developing and maintaining the city’s infrastructure.

“For us, what is important is to deal with the issues that are facing the people – issues of safety. Crime is one of the priorities because we cannot expect people to come and invest in the city whereas our city is riddled with crime. Crime will be a major focus for us,” says Matongo.

Hoping to reclaim its 2016 victory, the DA says it wants to fix the neglected CBDs of Johannesburg, not just in the inner city, but also in outer neighbourhoods such as Roodepoort and Orange Farm. Urban decay and the phenomenon of hijacked buildings have turned many potential economic hubs into slums, says DA Johannesburg mayoral candidate Mpho Phalatse.

“The City of Joburg is broken. We all see it we all experience it daily we are not accessing basic services which is a shame in a city that is the economic hub of the country.”

Speaking at a mini-rally in Florida Lake, Roodepoort, Phalatse acknowledges several issues raised by community members, including crime committed by illegal immigrants, drugs and service delivery.

Both the ANC and the DA have indicated their willingness to enter into coalition governments with smaller parties in the metros. But for the DA, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) are not among their list of preferred partners.

“We’ve learnt a lot of lessons from those three years. We will not repeat the same mistakes so this time around, we are going for an outright majority. Should we not get an outright majority of course we will enter into coalition with any party who shares our same values and principles. We will not enter into coalition with parties that don’t share our values and principles, because we know that coalition will not last and we want to give stability to our residents.”

New kids on the block, Action SA have maintained a strong presence on the ground, doing community rallies and online, with Johannesburg mayoral candidate Herman Mashaba leading the charge.

Despite its tender age, the party which was formed last year by the former Johannesburg mayor boasts several former DA members and claims to have garnered enough support to be a formidable contender, at least on Mashaba’s turf as well as in KwaZulu-Natal where former ANC MP Makhosi Khoza is competing for the Ethekwini mayoral chains.

On Friday the party held a well-attended rally at the MTN Taxi Rank in the Johannesburg CBD. Action SA has been touting their pragmatic approach to politics, by running clean-up drives and highlighting issues such as corruption, urban decay and service delivery in urban areas.

In Tswhane, the DA has much at stake after winning back control of the city through a court case challenging the provincial government’s 2019 decision to put the city under administration. Now that it’s back at the helm its campaign is focusing on promoting a majority win, in order to bring back stability in council, following a tumultuous 5 years.

DA campaign manager, Crezane Bosch says the party will ramp up its presence with ward candidate posters and daily activities for the next week.

” Our message is that we need a majority in council because for the past year, since 2020 we realised that without a majority it makes it very difficult to implement policies and approving budgets, we are very dependent on smaller parties.”

Gauteng metros face the triple challenge of a housing crisis, joblessness, and crime. According to the 2019/2020 General Households Survey, 27.7% of residents in the province are unemployed.

The ANC has adopted a strategy that is very pliable to coalition government, though according to Matongo, the party is in it to win a majority in all municipalities in the province.

“We had a national elections workshop and a provincial workshop today on the election strategy. We are in it to win it but you cannot be guaranteed to win in case we don’t have an outright majority, we have got the experience already of running a coalition government,” he says.

“Ours has worked wonders unlike the previous one of Mashaba which has failed. We have got the experience and we have set systems in place in terms of how does a coalition government runs in case we have one. “

Simnikiweh@citizen.co.za