SONGEZO ZIBI | Now’s the time to outpace Tshwane and Joburg mayoral rollercoasters

I live in Tshwane, the capital city of South Africa. As one of the largest diplomatic epicentres in the world, what happens here, such as the mayoral rollercoaster we are going through, is immediately noticed by many influential people in the world.

It is no exaggeration to say it is a farce, and not just because our system failed so dismally. It is much more than that, but let me first deal with Murunwa Makwarela, the gentleman at the centre of it all.

The first time I heard of him was a few weeks ago when he was elected mayor. Though some were surprised that a previously unknown candidate from a small party somehow made it to the mayoral seat, I wasn’t. His ascendancy was the second in a pattern that began in the City of Johannesburg and is set to culminate in Ekurhuleni soon. In each case the main protagonists of the takeover, the ANC and the EFF, induce smaller parties with positional and other incentives to overturn the existing coalitions as part of a long-term strategy to retain control of the Gauteng province and its metros.

I also expected the turmoil for another reason.

There is an election next year, and controlling state coffers is critical to building an effective electoral machinery. Not only are incumbent political parties able to deploy budgets in a way that buys voter confidence, they also retain the power to appoint lackeys to city agencies so they can award tenders to cronies who, in turn, fund the party’s electoral machine. This is done through indirect donations that are undeclared in terms of the country’s party funding laws.

For instance, a company belonging to a crony will buy thousands of T-shirts and other paraphernalia, pay for billboard space or other in-kind assistance that is difficult to uncover without a police investigation. The electoral commission has no capacity to conduct such, which explains why there is a certain political party that declares paltry donations but has enough resources to implement major political campaigns, seemingly through holy water.

I am told that in the City of Johannesburg such changes to agency boards are already under way, a process that needs to be implemented in a hurry since campaign season begins as early as September this year.

If a democracy is supposed to be a government of the people, by the people and for the people, then giving political parties such unfettered power to abuse the will of voters as they choose, makes a mockery of the system.

People like Makwarela and City of Johannesburg mayor Thapelo Ahmad are the perfect cover because they are entirely at the mercy of behind-the-scenes power brokers. You can always notice the real power brokers by looking at the mayoral executive portfolio allocations. They get the roles that oversee significant budgets or agencies with large procurement.

To pull this scheme, some councillors are induced with hard cash to switch votes, delivering a surprise after the secret ballot election. This happened in the Nelson Mandela metro when Athol Trollip was toppled in another ANC and EFF tag team during the previous local government term.

It is possible that the horse trading after next year’s elections will result in further dislocations at local government level as party bosses continue to carve out power arrangements between themselves. There is absolutely nothing voters can do about it because our electoral system allows this sort of thing to happen.

If a democracy is supposed to be a government of the people, by the people and for the people, then giving political parties such unfettered power to abuse the will of voters as they choose, makes a mockery of the system. It is not surprising that up to 70% of eligible voters simply do not turn up at the polls because they know a scam when they see one.

With this tale I want to make two points.

First, South Africa urgently needs a political reform package that will reduce the discretionary power of party bosses and give voters more say when profound changes need to be made in all spheres of government. It is ridiculous that voters go to the polls on one set of apparent mayoral, premier or presidential candidates, only to end up with different rulers because party dynamics changed at some point.

We must seriously consider the dissolution of such structures and snap elections so that the people can once more have a say. The reason each of the parties puts forward the names of candidates for these roles is because voters get to consider both the party and its preferred candidate. Giving the power to render those considerations pointless mid-term is a mistake that must be corrected urgently.

Second, it is important that voters understand the same thing will happen at national government level. The presidency and ministerial roles will change faster and more frequently than any of us can spell “elections”. Such frequent dislocations are not good for national stability, security and prosperity.

The same battles for municipal agencies will manifest once more with board appointments to state-owned companies in yet another round of capture by organised criminals and their friends within political parties. I am saying this knowing coalitions are our reality for the next few electoral cycles, if not for a very long time. Unless we reorder our political system to allow for transparency and power checks on political parties, we may as well accept that we will continue to be a gangster state whose citizens keep legitimising looting and impunity.