Don’t believe everything

27 October 2021

By next week, millions of South Africans will have voted. Millions won’t have bothered or will have stayed away on purpose. Local government leaders for the next five years will be settling into office, either tackling the myriad problems and improving the lives of our citizens or else, in many cases, neglecting their duties and getting their fingers in the till.

In deciding how to vote, informed voters will take with a pinch of salt much of what they hear. They will prefer facts rather than puff-pieces, promises, inflated claims and outright lies.

To quote a good example, President Ramaphosa appeared in Cape Town recently, looking for votes. Nearly everyone in this country must be aware that while that city is not perfect, it is the best run Metro in South Africa. It is administered by the DA. The president had the effrontery to promise that if people voted for the ANC there, they would get good service delivery.

He failed to tell us where there is adequate service delivery anywhere that the ANC rules the roost. Local government is a dismal mess – the ANC has had twenty-seven years to mess it up and they certainly have delivered. Wherever one looks there are dysfunctional town councils; no sewerage, except that running down the streets; interrupted electricity supplies; inadequate water; potholes; public buildings falling to pieces; no maintenance; robots and street lights not working; many overpaid officials doing little work; and looting of public money on an industrial scale. The list goes on and on.

Then you have Johannesburg. Under a DA-led coalition, the city saw a vast improvement for three years. The then Mayor threw away his mandate because he could not live in a party where Helen Zille was overwhelmingly elected to an administrative job. He opened the way for the return of the ANC. Everyone knew he was losing the support of the DA because of his dictatorial behaviour and his closeness to the EFF, the leader of which described him as the “EFF Mayor” of Johannesburg. He accused a DA councillor of being a racist because he wanted to spend some money in the suburbs rather than spending it all in Soweto. Now he claims unfinished business. One hopes he will not rely on the EFF to return him to power as the EFF Mayor.

Johannesburg has had three ANC mayors this year. While one does not wish to speak ill of the dead, Mayor Makhubo was heading for a criminal trial for corruption, that much was clear at the Zondo Commission. The current mayor, Mr Moerane, obviously thinks the voters are fools. When the president was confronted by angry people because of the electricity problems, the mayor announced Johannesburg was taking over from ESKOM by the end of the year. ESKOM had to issue a statement correcting the mayor’s untrue claims and stating that it would be years, if ever before the city took over.

The DA has fought this election under the slogan, “The DA gets things done.” This is certainly true of the Western Cape and the many municipalities the DA administers. It is not a puffed-up claim and is supported by the Auditor-General, among others. One wonders at the time of writing whether the voters are interested in good government or whether they prefer the same tired old excuses and promises, together with a food parcel and a T-shirt. 1 November will answer that question.

Douglas Gibson is a former opposition chief whip and ambassador to Thailand. His website is douglasgibsonsouthafrica.com

This article first appeared in The Star newspaper. 

This article first appeared in The Star