How the ANC took back Joburg

The return of the ANC to power in the City of Joburg and the election of Geoff Makhubo as its mayor is a “tragedy” for the city’s residents and could potentially harm President Cyril Ramaphosa’s anticorruption crusade, according to an analyst.

Outspoken political analyst Dr Ralph Mathekga said the election was not a true victory for the ANC because it came to power without promising to change anything in Johannesburg.

“The ANC is back in power without doing anything or promising to do anything differently in Joburg. We cannot interpret this as an ANC victory, but a Democratic Alliance blunder.

“What did the ANC promise to do for people of Johannesburg before they were voted back? Nothing,” Mathekga said.

The analyst added: “If we are not careful as a nation, we will find ourselves supporting battles that will have no positive consequences for South Africa.”

He said the ANC victory could also signal a sad moment for Joburg residents, as it could mean a return to poor service delivery, such as rubbish not being collected, the billing system malfunctioning and corruption. This would contradict the aim of Ramaphosa’s “new dawn” and deal a blow to his efforts to run a corruption-free administration.

When Makhubo was officially nominated ahead of the vote, cries of “tsotsi, tsotsi”, aimed at the corruption-accused ANC politician, could be heard resounding through the chamber.

Mathekga questioned Makhubo’s election, despite his poor track record as former MMC for finance, and accusations of corruption hanging over his head.

Makhubo was alleged to have shares in the Gupta-linked Regiments Capital, a firm implicated in state capture.

The ANC welcomed the results and celebrated the victory.

In a tweet, Gauteng Premier David Makhura congratulated Makhubo, saying: “Joburg is one of the cities that has the responsibility to pull our nation out of the current economic challenges. We are confident that you will lead our people to prosperity”.

Another analyst, Somadoda Fikeni, said the ANC would have to work hard to win back the confidence of people who were disillusioned by its past mistakes in the city.

How the numbers added up

Geoff Makhubo won with 137 votes. The Democratic Alliance (DA) only managed 101, meaning at least three of its councillors didn’t vote for its candidate in a surprise outcome (the DA has 104 seats).

All of the EFF’s 30 councillors voted for its candidate, Musa Novela, which contributed to helping Makhubo to defeat the DA’s Funzela Ngobeni by a wide margin.

All the smaller parties, including the Inkatha Freedom Party, supported the ANC.

It was established ahead of the vote that two councillors were not present, making the total number of participants 267 as opposed to the expected 269 – which would be the total of council seats, 270, minus that of ANC councillor David Monamodi, who died in November.

The dispute over what constituted a majority – with some parties arguing that the candidate with the highest amount of votes would become Joburg’s new mayor and others saying that a majority must mean over 50% of the vote – was resolved earlier yesterday.

Council speaker Vasco da Gama said a majority could only mean more than half of the votes.

This meant that of 267 councillors present, a majority vote would be 134 votes or more – or 50% plus one.

– ericn@citizen.co.za

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