Local ward councillors weigh in on City of Johannesburg’s latest mayor

Will three times be a charm for the residents of the City of Johannesburg? The City of Johannesburg has seen two new mayors from Al Jama-ah with the latest being newly elected Kabelo Gwamanda, since the DA’s caucus leader Mpho Phalatse’s ousting in a second motion of no confidence in January this year after being in office for one year.

Gwamanda’s appointment began on a rocky note after his qualifications were called into question and after Phalatse claimed that Gwamanda was involved in a fraudulent funeral and investment scheme.

Ward councillors weigh in on the effects of the constant mayoral changes

Ward 117 councillor Tim Truluck said the constant changes in political parties is a real problem and hastens the decline in the City of Johannesburg.

“The only way that the City of Johannesburg can reverse its current nosedive into becoming a failed city is if we can get a stable government of likeminded parties for 10–20 years. With regard to the current spate of no-hoper puppets being put up in Gauteng, they are chosen specifically to be controlled and told what to do by the coalition major parties.”

Truluck added that although a mayor was chosen by the party with the highest number of councillors, MPs had experience of what is needed, both politically and operationally, choosing a non-entity with no experience who has not been vetted properly is asking for trouble.

Ward 72 councillor Daniel Schay explained that cadre deployment was one of the contributing factors to a dysfunctional system.

“Many of whom are also questionable in their competence and when there is a change in leadership, a lot of them wait for political instructions and it all comes to a grounding halt. The stability does disrupt the service delivery process due to the politicisation of the administration and the questionable competence in the administration.”

Schay added that although he did not believe mayors required a formal qualification for their abilities, formal qualifications are an indicator of someone’s professionalism to an extent. He also said the public should not have mayors that had questionable ethics and behaviour during their term in office.

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