The City of Johannesburg is once again on the rocks as opposition parties are calling for the removal of Thapelo Amad just three months after he was elected in an ANC-brokered deal.
Amad’s utterances on the prospect of a R9.5 billion loan were met with strong backlash from opposition parties as well as at least one who had backed his election. In an interview on SABC’s MorningLive, the mayor said the loan could be used to improve service delivery and build a smart city.
The city’s Finance MMC Dada Morero, who is an ANC member, denied any knowledge of the deal. The Patriotic Alliance’s (PA) Gayton McKenzie tweeted regret for having backed “the wrong horse”. ActionSA submitted a motion-of-no-confidence in the “puppet mayor”.
Meanwhile, in an interview on Salaamedia, political commentator Sulieman Patel said Thapelo Amad should have been cautious about what he said and when he said it.
Likening the running of the city to being an executive at a company, he said such discussions as the one referred to by the mayor were expected at some point. However, he said, “when you’re on a media platform and, in this particular case, the mayor, one should be very careful and not just go and say ‘I had a meeting and we were discussing the potential capital loan’”.
“There’s no doubt that if you’re the CEO of any corporation and you need to find money, one will be having discussions with people at various levels and that’s the role of the CEO together with the CFO,” he said.
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Caution
While mayor Thapelo Amad later clarified his statement about the loan offer, the fallout was far-reaching. Opposition parties and some within the coalition were already convinced he needed to be removed.
Patel said the city’s history of corruption and mismanagement made the fallout unsurprising. He suggested it was the kind of drama that unfolded when you elect “incompetent” people to power.
“When you’re dealing with a R78bn budget, knowing where we come from in terms of corruption, knowing where we are in terms of the downfall of these metros, and the very aggressive nature of poor service delivery … one cannot going onto a national media platform and talk about a R9.2bn discussion when you don’t understand the instrument [and] the context of this.”
There were significant hoops that one would need to go through in terms of the Municipal Finance Act and the Municipal Systems Act in order to secure such a loan, he said.
“This itself shows that if you have individuals that are not qualified to be able to understand governance, to not be able to understand how local government works and operates … it’s a travesty.”
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Coalition politics
PA leader Gayton McKenzi vented his ire over not being consulted as a coalition partner, hinting at the party’s intention to withdraw from coalition arrangements in Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni. Such a decision was likely to be taken at its national executive committee meeting on Thursday.
ActionSA’s Funzi Ngobeni said Thapelo Amad’s time at the helm was up. “Mayor Amad, an expedient candidate between the ANC and EFF’s coalition of doom, has time and time again proven to be woefully ill-equipped and unable to articulate a coherent plan of action and vision for the City of Johannesburg,” he said.
Patel explained this was a “politics of proxies” in action. He said this posed a “serious threat to any type of democracy”. It must not be an easy job for Amad, he suggested.
“If you’re going to be the butter between two slices of bread, you’re going to slip-slide constantly. You’re going to have the two powers that brought you in, in this case the ANC and some of the other parties. You’ll always be playing on a slippery slope and, when the time comes, they will essentially try and reject you.”
