City of Joburg has had 9 mayors in 8 years but has this improved the lives of residents?
Written by IOL on August 20, 2024
Since 2016, the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) metro has had a constant change of mayors meaning that decision-making and planning commitments were always subject to changes, hence lack of service delivery could be seen across the city.
The city has had nine mayors from different political parties in the space of eight years but the city-state kept on declining.
Infrastructure degradation, water outages, power cuts, poor business retention, weak internal planning, and financial controls, crime, and lawlessness are the main reasons the CoJ is losing its ability to run the city.
Money has been pumped in, loans have been made to overturn the city’s situation but nothing seems to have helped.
Speaking to IOL, a public policy specialist at the Wits School of Governance Dr Kagiso “TK” Pooe said different mayors were prioritising different elements of the city.
“A few portfolios have suffered from consistent focus and leadership,” he said.
He said the core failure of the city was lack of service delivery. “Ultimately failure to provide consistent and adequate leadership on these issues means the CoJ has compromised its ability to address service delivery and grow the economic prowess of the region of Johannesburg,” he said.
Lecturer at the Department of Political Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) Dr Thokozani Chilenga-Butao told IOL that the issue was not service delivery but leadership change.
She said there were doubts about the mayor because there was no consensus among political parties on who should lead the city.
“This shows that the coalition in local government is not working,” she said.
Chilenga-Butao said the leaders had their mandates and “it is very important for residents to know the plan for the candidates”.
In terms of economic development, she said the city has the biggest budget that is almost equal to the budget of other countries yet service delivery is complicated.
“If we don’t have good leadership, then it will be seen in the service delivery. If you don’t have good leadership in local government then it is left to the technical experts to intervene,” she said.
A resident in the city of Joburg, Johanna Madiba also told IOL that the change of mayors had an impact on the city because there was no committed to anything.
“I mean if today you are in and tomorrow you are out, what commitments can you make? That’s why there is a lack of service delivery and you go around seeing garbage around the city.
“We are just hoping for the best in the newly elected mayor,” he said.
Meanwhile, on Friday, the City Council had for the second time elected the ANC’s Dada Morero to be the executive mayor of the city.
In his acceptance speech, Morero promised to turn around the city’s economic development and ensure that it returned to its former glory.
