Tumultuous times in a deeply divided city

It would be a mistake to simply put this week’s removal of Johannesburg mayor Mpho Phalatse down to bad politics and power-mongering on the part of those who deposed her. Though there are elements of truth in that view, the emergence of smaller parties that command inordinate influence over the city’s affairs is a result, in part, of historical deficits in the delivery of services to the various communities making up the city’s population.

Because of inequalities that have endured after apartheid, it is not surprising that underserved communities might attribute their plight to deliberate discrimination.

This creates fertile ground for politicians to exploit in pushing their own narrow interests. The election of Al Jama-ah’s Thapelo Amad as mayor of Johannesburg, despite the party’s small electoral support, is the culmination of divisions that have grown between the city’s communities over recent years.

Now that the dust has settled, the challenge for the city’s new leadership is to not favour one community over another, which would deepen the divisions. The new leaders must resist the temptation to “reward” their constituencies at the expense of those who did not vote for them.

The conduct of councillors and their parties in the run-up to the latest changing of the guard has been anything but edifying. The crude horse-trading would have given the public the impression that councillors are concerned more with their own interests than those of the voters, especially because matters of policy seem to have been put on the back burner.

The priority for Amad and his new leadership must be to speedily stabilise the city’s management so it can finally begin to focus on meeting its delivery obligations to residents in an important economic hub, which has been rudderless for far too long.