By Phakamisa Mayaba
Over the past week, my social media timeline has led me to believe that, in the upcoming local government elections, the City of Johannesburg will be where the gloves really come off and there’ll be blood on the floor.
While elsewhere the canvassing mostly creeps up subliminally in the form of potholes being fixed and streets being swept, but no actual boots-on-the-ground campaigning, in Jozi the barnstorming – and acrimonious exchanges – are out of the starting blocks. This is clearly the one that everybody wants. But why this city, a notorious hive of crass capitalism, illegal immigrants and hijacked buildings?
The answer will always depend on who you ask, and it lurks somewhere along the themes of a showbiz mecca, an economic powerhouse, brash cultures, big sedans, slums awash in sewage, and too many broken dreams. This concrete jungle – known colloquially as eGoli, but also as eRhawutini — wears many hats, and presents many a trap for the unwary, including naïve inkommers from the rural areas.
One cautionary tale – common among older generations in my family and others – goes like this: A demure rural maiden in a long frock boards a train to eGoli in search of work. Soon, she gazes fondly into the eyes of her new-found city slicker lover — the one who smokes cigars, wears heavy-soled Flosham ‘basements’ (shoes), imbibes the good stuff, and speaks with an accent from 1970s Hollywood. He’s no good, to her or himself, and she soon finds herself chewed up and spat out like tasteless gum. In those backwater parables, she usually winds up dishonouring her father’s name as a good-time slum girl who has replaced the dignified long dresses for tight jeans and miniskirts.
Aah, eGoli – also known as ‘kwandonga ziyaduma’ (the place where the walls thunder) and ‘kwanyama ayipheli kuphel’ amazinyo wendoda‘ (the place where the meat never runs out, only the man’s teeth) …
This is a place where dreams were made – in the gold mines deep underground, in a classroom, in the theatre, strumming a guitar – but mostly they died in the kitchen or garden of suburban servitude. Today, grim articles about a city in terminal distress – huge potholes, dry taps, polluted rivers and power outages, and growing lawlessness — provide a backdrop for the strident electioneering.
Few places enjoy the sentimental multicultural attachment that transcends boundaries quite like Joburg. ‘The New York of Africa’, raps Tumi ‘Stogie T’ Molekane. Hillbrow is referred to as Little Lagos, in light of the hordes of Nigerians who have come to call the place home. Unlike the nation’s other cities where one cultural group dominates, Joburg is a quintessential melting pot, with people from widely disparate cultures converging in large numbers for bread or pleasure, even if it means using a gun to get their hands on either.
East London or Gqeberha are patently Xhosa, and Durban is Zulu, but Jozi is a cocktail. And now, some warn, it is slowly going to seed, brought low by a toxic mix of poor governance, uncontrolled in-migration, and a host of other iniquities. Today, more than ever, the city needs a hero.
Indeed, the early campaigning clearly indicates that those who would seek to run things there are well aware that the stakes are staggeringly high. Victory could be a stepping stone for the winner to take it all in the future. Anyone who is able to reverse the fortunes of Africa’s supposedly richest city could gain massive public confidence in their perceived ability – and that of their party — to pull the rest of Mzanzi back from tumbling over the edge.
Given this, it comes as no surprise that the DA and ActionSA have rolled out their finest to vie for the city’s top job. Jo’burgers have had it with ineffective, crackpot mayors, and the ANC — which hasn’t yet announced its candidate – now seems fatally hamstrung. The last one due to shoot out of the revolving door — Dada Morero, apparently a Ramahosa shoo-in — seemed mildly promising, but has been well and truly sunk by the water crisis. So the party might well craft a campaign around the organisation itself – appealing to traditional loyalties – rather than an individual.
Despite the controversy around his remarks about illegal immigrants, Herman Mashaba is doubling down, employing an unapologetically stern tone in this regard during recent interviews. This is clearly well-calculated and deliberate. The chattering class might have crucified him for these utterances in the past, but Mashaba is obviously attuned to the raw sentiments on the ground. For many ordinary South Africans, the ‘foreigner problem’ is immediate and goes hand in hand with spazas selling expired goods, counterfeit liquor, and drugs on the street.
So it’s not for nothing that disruptive organisations like Operation Dudula and March and March have drawn tremendous support overnight. Their hands-on approach of actually confronting spaza and liquor traders as well as suspected druglords has resonated with communities accustomed to a lack of accountability and delayed policing and court processes. This explains why Mashaba has brought in the drug-busting television host Xolani Khumalo as ActionSA’s mayoral candidate for Ekurhuleni. But voters have grown wary of promises, and living up to the ‘action’ part of the party’s name would pay off handsomely.
The MK Party, which performed well in the 2024 national election, doesn’t seem to be all that eager to show up just yet.
As for the DA, the redoubtable Helen Zille has crashed in on the Johannesburg scene, sitting with her legs in potholes filled with water, and making the most of various other photo ops — all with obvious designs at woeing the black vote.
The DA billboard poking fun at Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi’s embarrassing comment about being forced to shower in hotels due to the water problem has had the socials laughing out loud (lol). Zille has taken to speaking isiXhosa and has promised to create 200 000 jobs.
Helen Zille in a Soweto tavern during the Soweto Derby, swinging a bottle of beer. Source: Helen Zille Facebook page.
Most recently, she has posted images of herself celebrating Orlando Pirates’ 3-0 victory over Kaizer Chiefs in the Soweto Derby in a local tavern. In one image, she is seen holding a botle of beer — a move which her political rivals have tried to exploit. (Among others, the ANC MP Mzawanele Manyi has posted (rather prissily): ‘In Joburg we don’t want a mayor that celebrates brandishing alcohol, given the alcohol abuse in our townships.’
Not to be outdone, Julius Malema – which stands to lose his (lucrative) role of kingmaker in Johannesburg and Tswane – has labelled her a letakgwa (drunkard). The war of words continues.
So how to they line up? A homeboy who’s had a previous stint as mayor, Mashaba starts off with an advantage. His business acumen as a self-made multi-millionaire also does not harm his efforts. But Zille is a formidable opponent, with a political arsenal based on years of leadership of the DA; mayor of Cape Town; premier of the Western Cape; and benind-the-scenes engineer of the Government of National Unity.
Some analysts still say ethnicity will be the major determinant of how people will vote. But one wonders if such racial distinctions will stand when they have to choose between party loyalty, and having water and electricity. In the 2024 general elections, voters began to rattle the status quo. If this trend continues in Jo’burg in the forthcoming local elections, it might well be the dawn of a new political era.
The key issue is whether the DA can cross that magic barrier of gaining more than 50% of the vote — which will enable it to govern the city on its own, free from the coalition morass of the past ten to 15 years. Zille says it will. Mashaba says it won’t.
It’s a massive political tipping point, not only for Jo’burg for the country as a whole. If this happens in Jo’burg now, it might well happen in the next general election. The stakes could hardly be higher.
FEATURED IMAGE: The controversial DA billboard featuring ANC Gauteng Premier Payaza Lesufi having a shower in a hotel. Image: DA Gauteng Facebook page.
This is an edited version of an article on Phakamisa Mayaba’s website, Eparkeni. Used with permission.