There has been no greater wrecking ball to the province of Gauteng than Premier Panyaza Lesufi, who has systematically overseen its collapse across not only its district municipalities but the major metros as well.
Due to a combination of factors driven by political factionalism, self-interest, stubbornness and general incompetence the province is collapsing on multiple fronts.
This is exemplified by the current state of Johannesburg, which has been in a downward spiral for years. Petty local government politics, rotating mayors and a system of governance that has been infected by corruption are slowly bring the city to its knees. So much so that President Cyril Ramaphosa scheduled a two-day oversight visit to examine exactly what was happening, and he was not pleased.
Speaking on the visit the President tried to keep it diplomatic as he engaged the media without totally throwing the provincial and city leadership under the bus. While attending G20 meetings in the city he said that the city “was not very pleasing,………..the environment that one observed was not a pleasing environment.” He appealed for more to be done to restore the state of basic service delivery and touted a presidential task team. The path to doing this will be long.
Meanwhile, Lesufi has prioritised his own political future above that of the needs of the citizens of Gauteng. When he was tasked with forming a proper provincial government of national unity he opted to shun the Democratic Alliance, offer them weak positions in the hope he can carry on doing as he pleases. This was rejected by the DA and so Lesufi heads up a minority government in the province. Of course, he was also terrified that the DA would then uncover and reveal the state of mismanagement that has occurred in the Province under his watch.
Desperate to keep some supporters around him he has sought to actively criticize the national GNU. Speaking out against it while trying to cultivate partnerships with the EFF. After experimenting with multiple minority executive mayors in Johannesburg who fast-tracked the decline of the city, now it is led by ANC Mayor Dada Morero who has been virtually absent from engaging on the state of the city since his term started. Lesufi shored up this election by convincing Action SA to support this move in exchange for giving them the Speaker position.
Deal was struck
He then offered ASA the Executive Mayor position in Tshwane in exchange for collapsing the functioning government there with the Cilliers Brink at the helm. A deal was struck, and the ANC got the EFF involved to help back Action SA to betray their coalition.
Not all within the ANC in province are happy with these arrangements, in Ekurhuleni the ANC has been actively seeking to end the working relationship that they have with the EFF because of continued infighting and factionalism which has ultimately compromised governance in the metropolitan. So much so that in June last year the ANC mayor Doctor Xhakaza fired the EFF Finance MMC Nkululeko Dungu who is also the EFF Gauteng chairperson. The result is that the governance in Ekurhuleni is totally compromised, with no governing majority and the local ANC leadership at the helm of a coalition that they actively don’t believe in.
This is Panyaza Lesufi’s legacy in Gauteng; desperate to shore up support in the province, he has focused his attention on either helping to swap out a stream of mayors in the City of Johannesburg, ignoring the dysfunctional government he put together in Ekurhuleni or collapsing a functional government in Tshwane to replace it with a coalition that is now putting the city on the path to collapse.
Recently on social media Lesufi posted a picture of gentleman fixing a traffic light in Johannesburg to demonstrate that he is responding to the needs of the province. It was truly pitiful. A classic case of Lesufism, “I know I watched, did nothing and actively contributed to the collapse of governance in the province, but look, here we are fixing this traffic light.” It is some kind of delusion type “Emperor with no clothes” illness, I’m not sure.
Laser focus is now on Johannesburg again with the President’s oversight visit and the meetings of the G20. When confronted about the state of city, Lesufi could only but muster an apology in response to the President’s statements on what he had experienced. At some point Lesufi will face a motion of no confidence in his leadership in Gauteng, already the ANC has expressed a lack of confidence in him with the restructuring of the Gauteng ANC Provincial Executive Committee.
Stay on
However, when confronted with a motion in the Gauteng Legislature, Lesufi is going to be forced to try to shore up support from the EFF or MK in order to survive and stay on as Premier and it is unlikely this would not come without further concessions.
In the meantime, while he will be focused on his political survival it is highly unlikely that the state of governance in the province or in the municipalities will change because those arrangements have been put in place deliberately by him to salvage his political future.
[Image: Gia Conte-Patel from Pixabay]
The views of the writer are not necessarily the views of the Daily Friend or the IRR.
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