EDITORIAL | Lesufi’s pandering to Soweto residents smacks of cheap political point-scoring

Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi, who, importantly, is also the ANC’s chairperson in Gauteng, planted a politically seductive seed in the minds of his important constituency: electricity debt in Soweto could be cancelled soon.

This is an important development and is tied to the waning fortunes of the once-mighty ANC: the people of Soweto have steadily stayed away on election days and this has adversely affected the party. With the much-anticipated general elections in 2024 fast approaching, what cunning strategy could be used to help the ANC claw back its support in Gauteng’s biggest township? “Until we remove the debt of electricity in Soweto, we are not going to resolve the problem of electricity in Soweto,” Lesufi told residents in Zola, Soweto, this week, who collectively owe Eskom about R5bn.

This is patently a populist move meant to endear the ANC to its important but disillusioned constituency. More so because President Cyril Ramaphosa has told the nation that it is important to inculcate a culture of paying for services. ANC chair Gwede Mantashe has also said nothing is for free, meaning whatever is made free for someone is, in fact, being paid for by another.

Many have not forgotten how Ramaphosa was heckled and denied an opportunity to electioneer in Soweto ahead of the municipal polls in November 2021. It was a dramatic scene, one the ANC is unaccustomed to.

If you consider too that Gauteng has argued that e-tolls should be scrapped and national government has conceded to this on the proviso that the province should find about R20bn to settle its (E-tolls) debt, it becomes even clearer that the pain points of Gauteng voters are being absorbed by the Lesufi administration, which ostensibly hopes the electorate will remember these gestures in 2024. Many have not forgotten how Ramaphosa was heckled and denied an opportunity to electioneer in Soweto ahead of the municipal polls in November 2021. It was a dramatic scene, one the ANC is unaccustomed to. And one it clearly would not want repeated.

Soweto, where Ramaphosa comes from, has been at the heart of the ANC’s decline in support, with the DA consolidating its support in the suburbs north of Joburg and the EFF gnawing at part of the ANC’s traditional support. The result was low voter turnout in the crucial voting zone, leading to the ANC failing, for the second time, to get over 50% in the country’s economic capital.

It is not inconceivable that Lesufi is already contemplating where the ANC’s support for 2024 is going to come from in Gauteng, and what that constituency’s main gripes against his administration are. E-tolls and electricity challenges are certainly among those at the top. Politically, the interventions seem convenient and self-serving. They appear part of a cunning but populist strategy to not lose Gauteng to a plethora of opposition parties now running a number of metropolitan councils in Tshwane, Joburg and Ekurhuleni.

Lesufi is careful not to upset the paying electorate with his move to cancel the debt, noting that there must be a process to ensure the debt is not cancelled only to recur. It makes him come across as prudent when, in fact, there are no guarantees that the debt would not recur.

What is required is a thorough process of only cancelling debt for identifiable, poor families. Across the country, municipalities have a fair idea who the poor they service are. Many, if not all, have what is termed indigent policies, in terms of which they offer the poor reduced rates, water and electricity tariffs. In Soweto, for example, the Joburg metro ought reasonably to know who the indigent families are.

We believe that if there is debt to be cancelled, it must be the debt of families registered with the city on their indigent lists. Otherwise, how do you determine who is poor enough to qualify for electricity debt write-off, when they’re not poor enough to register for indigent benefits? A move for general cancellation of electricity debt seems calculated to revive the ANC’s fortunes and should be rejected. Those not on the indigent lists should pay for their electricity just like the rest of us.