Politics 101: The job is bigger than individuals

ActionSA says it will support a new Joburg government provided the ANC removes Kabelo Gwamanda as mayor and reverses the R200 surcharge on prepaid electricity.

For months, calls for Gwamanda to step down have been increasing, with opposition councillors arguing he is not suitably qualified to lead the golden city.

See, Joburg’s sixth mayor of the current term and ninth since 2016 should not have been anywhere near the mayoral chain to begin with.

With his party holding just three seats in council, his ascension to the highest office in the metro was about ticking political boxes and outsmarting rivals, not capabilities. The ANC has since said he will resign next month.

The World Mayor Project, which recognises mayors annually, describes the award recipients as those who “selflessly serve their communities beyond reproach, possessing a genuine love for their fellow citizens and a willingness to share resources and expertise with less fortunate localities ... Above all, they must respect the human rights of everyone”.

It’s hard to think of Gwamanda falling in this category.

In the early 1990s, when New York City was on the decline, the mayor at that time, Rudy Giuliani, was determined to pull the city out of its malaise by implementing an innovative policing approach based on the “Broken Windows” theory.

The theory states that by stamping out small crimes (such as vandalism, public drinking, and toll-jumping) the signal is sent that no criminal behaviour of any kind will be tolerated. An atmosphere of order and lawfulness is created, and more serious crimes are prevented from taking place.

Joburg remains the hub of things that go against this approach, and it’s unthinkable that Gwamanda has anything in his tank to change its fortunes.

For example, you don’t solve societal matters by making residents pay more for electricity while politicians jostle for power and live comfortably.

This is a lesson for all municipalities in the country: the job is bigger than individuals, and not every democratically-elected member of the august house is capable to lead.

Cape Times