There is no doubt that the City of Jo’burg is plagued by service disruptions, collapsing infrastructure, high rates of crime and illegal immigration, poor investment, and dwindling economic opportunities. Many attribute this to the current political executive and their leadership, which may or may not determine their work ethic and ability to solve the underlying issues facing South Africa’s “economic hub”.
But blaming leadership styles and political personalities for the City’s woes leaves out an essential piece of evidence when investigating why the city is so poorly governed.
It has become increasingly clear that the dominant set of ideologies that guides the current “Government of Local Unity” coalition is the real issue facing the administration’s officials and the City’s residents: statist and leftist ideologies that lead to top-down decision-making, reckless spending and borrowing, outright corruption, and an organisational culture rife with silos, poor process planning, horrendous employee abuse, and insufficient performance management.
The rag-tag crew of avowed neo-Marxists, nationalists, and social liberals that make up the coalition running the city is indeed the real problem facing the residents.
Collapse
Collapsing municipal entities, growing debt, delayed projects, poor service prioritisation, and a lack of initiative when it comes to partnering with the private sector are all indicators of entitled and elitist statists who believe the state must drain residents and businesses for revenue and then selectively spend on projects and services in a partisan manner.
One must understand the psychology of these virtue-signalling statists who want to appear as pious and productive rulers, when they are actually contributing and achieving very little.
They truly believe they can do better than the people; they are better than others, morally and intellectually superior. This arrogance is revealed in public displays of pomp and ceremony; fancy trips overseas; and a general obsession with hierarchy, prestige, and power over all decision-making and appointments.
The many parties that have cosigned on to and into the so-called Government of Local Unity are largely left-leaning in nature, with some sitting on the far-left, promoting Marxist-Leninism and some representing more moderate social liberal leanings. These parties are: the African National Congress; Economic Freedom Fighters; African Independent Congress; Patriotic Alliance; Inkatha Freedom Party; African Heart Congress; African Transformation Movement; African Peoples Convention; Pan Africanist Congress; Congress of the People; Al Jam-ah; ActionSA; United Independent Movement; and the United Democratic Movement.
As a councillor in Joburg’s legislature I have to suffer through their pseudo-intellectual Marxist ramblings that seem to be regurgitated by some poor artificial intelligence system. The neo-Marxist and developmentalist obsession with an inefficient bloated state, along with the disdain for the free market and the private sector, is not only on full public display during livestreamed council sittings, but also when services are poorly rendered and projects are delayed on the ground.
Purposeless and politicised
Residents don’t get the municipal service levels they pay for, due to a purposeless, politicised, and generally lackadaisical organisational culture that has come about as a result of autocratic top-down decision-making and an antiquated and uninspiring statist view on public service.
Performance management and consequence management are poor in the City, owing to the leftist policy of unmeritocratic cadre deployment, and because there is no assertive, consultative, and principled political leadership…but also because the current political executive is simply too lazy or too busy with political work to ensure a performance management system is fully implemented, and a new City Manager is hired to provide effective consequence management.
Residents of “Jozi” and the surrounding municipalities must understand that political values and principles go a long way in ensuring a clarity of purpose, a sense of unity with officials, and a culture of institutional stability.
Plans, policies, and even work processes should ideally be put through an “ideological lens” of sorts to ensure time and money (bestowed upon the administration by the electorate) are saved and not squandered.
In my view, clearly defined modern liberal principles are needed, and these are only espoused and displayed by the current main opposition in the City of Johannesburg, the Democratic Alliance (DA). As anti-Apartheid stalwart and staunch liberal Helen Suzman once said: “If you are unsure, go back to the principles.”
Values and principles
If you weren’t aware, DA-run governments in South Africa adhere to a set of classical liberal and federalist values and principles – as well as public policy developed and approved by real liberals and then adopted by members of the party from across the country. Not forgetting that the DA strives to inculcate into all party members its modern liberal values and principles, which include freedom, fairness, opportunity, and diversity.
When liberal ideas are put through filters by trained and experienced liberals, and are then voted on by liberals from diverse communities, it simply means more thought has been given to the policies of the DA when it governs.
These values, principles, and qualities are found in the governments run by the sole liberal party in the country.
One notable example is how the City of Cape Town has fought the Federalist fight, lobbying national government to take over trains, its port, and even policing powers. It is now taking the state to court regarding restrictive procurement rules for municipal government.
Central planning
Just down the road from Joburg, DA-run Midvaal has flatly rejected efforts at central planning, including the District Development Model (DDM) imposed upon municipalities by national government. Its clear and principled stance means other smaller district and local municipalities can also stand up for federalism, localisation, and decentralisation.
In DA-run uMngeni in KwaZulu-Natal, the town of Howick and surrounding areas have been transformed by new investments and improved revenue generation. The formerly ANC-led administration has been reformed by pro-business liberal councillors. They have ensured there is a shift in organisational culture which attracts new businesses and jobs to the municipality.
Fortunately for Jo’burg, there are some principled and unwaveringly liberal DA candidates standing as the DA’s Mayoral candidate in 2026 (or early 2027 depending on the IEC’s pronouncements), one of whom wrote a book about the dangers of political polarisation, leftist radicalisation and the threat of neo-Marxist identity politics.
Jo’burg can be saved, but only if the electorate places a mark on their ballot next to the right set of political principles: principles that could carry the city into a golden age of real progress and prosperity.
The views of the writer are not necessarily the views of the Daily Friend or the IRR.
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