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Panyaza Lesufi. Picture: Gallo Images/Lubabalo Lesolle
Panyaza Lesufi. Picture: Gallo Images/Lubabalo Lesolle

Citizens of Gauteng should not be held hostage to the ANC’s factional whims — there is a leadership crisis in the province that must be resolved. 

This week the ANC announced it would “reconfigure” the ANC leadership in the province. In effect, this means dissolving the structure as this is all the party’s constitution provides for.

The makeup of the new structure will be determined by the party’s top seven leaders, but secretary-general Fikile Mbalula complained that the debate in the national executive committee was bogged down by factions eyeing the party’s elective conference in 2027.

ANC succession politics remains relevant — likely for just one more election cycle — but it cannot be used as an excuse to block necessary changes in provinces contributing most to the party’s electoral decline. 

The message from Gauteng voters was clear — after losing nearly 10 percentage points in the 2014 election, the party in the province and nationally managed to stem the tide of its decline in 2019. Its support fell just two points, from 53% to 51%, owing mainly to the removal of Jacob Zuma, the ascent of President Cyril Ramaphosa and a relatively responsive provincial government at the time.

That has changed. Now the provincial leadership is an epic failure. Spokesperson turned premier Panyaza Lesufi is a showman with limited vision, who can hardly boast of a single achievement during his tenure barring dead-end public relations exercises. From his ill-advised crime wardens to his adopt-a-robot campaign, his tenure has been disappointing. 

Provincial secretary TK Nciza is presiding over the collapse of ANC structures, the erosion of the party’s standing among communities due to its tie-up with the EFF in the major cities, and the loss of members and councillors to Zuma’s MK party. 

The current crop of ANC leaders took charge of the province in 2022, as the rebuilding after a tough two years of Covid-induced lockdowns began in earnest globally. The new leadership, a generational shift in the ANC in the province, was widely expected to use the opportunity to make its mark in Gauteng, which contributes about 35% to the national GDP. 

It had relatively strong targets set by the previous administration — to revitalise the township economy, achieve 100% clean audits across departments and clean up the tender system. Instead, Lesufi and company spent a considerable amount of time and energy reclaiming the metros the ANC lost in the 2021 local elections through lengthy negotiations with the EFF and constant votes of no confidence in the various councils, many which the hapless Lesufi attended himself. 

The provincial ANC installed puppet mayors in the multibillion-rand budget cities of Ekurhuleni and Johannesburg — Al-Jamah’s Thapelo Amad and Kabelo Gwamanda in Johannesburg, and the African Independent Congress’s Sivuyile Ngodwana in Ekurhuleni. But the situation was unworkable. Even though the ANC and the EFF were pulling the strings, these mayors should not have made it into council, let alone preside over SA’s main business, industrial and economic centres. 

That alone was evidence of a devastating naiveté and lack of strategic foresight by the ANC in Gauteng. The state of service delivery in Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni is more evidence, as are the parlous state of the finances of both cities. Johannesburg’s credit rating plunged and it has taken loans to fund its everyday operations, including paying salaries. Ekurhuleni lost its clean audit status and was downgraded to junk status. 

Far from jostling for slots in 2027 the politicians responsible for the state of these two once-prized cities should be forced into permanent retirement. 

There is another measure of the provincial government’s performance. The latest Gauteng City Region Observatory’s quality of life survey shows that citizens of the province, home to 25% of the country’s population, are subject to decay, stinking, decrepit health facilities and rising levels of violent crime. A staggering 57% of those living in the province believe SA is a failed state due to this experience. 

Water is another looming crisis. For months Lesufi and his entourage have been whining about the national ANC’s inclusion of the DA in the government of national unity, a strategic move linked to his ambition to be a puppet master at the ANC’s next elective conference. Yet at the same time water minister Pemmy Majodina has been complaining to parliament that the province has simply not taken heed of national government’s warnings and interventions on the water crisis.

Gauteng residents deserve better than to be held hostage by a government whose prime focus is the ANC’s notorious stomach politics and not its citizens. 

• Marrian is Business Day editor at large.

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