Citizens should elect their own mayors

IN 1994, this municipality was one of the best run in the country. It had sound financial and IT systems with the engineering, technical and financial skills to back this up.

When Nceba Faku was appointed mayor of the then Transitional Local Authority in 1994, most officials were only too happy to use the existing skills to provide services to the wider populace, which had been denied to them by central government interference through the Group Areas Act, etc. Faku used these skills to meet the aspirations of the city as a whole.

Then the ANC decided it wished to control all metropolitan municipalities centrally. Out went Faku and in came a series of centrally managed puppets.

The skills base was eroded by “encouraged” early retirements, cadre deployment, and promotion of officials with no knowledge of municipal procedures and systems, nor the necessary technical skills and experience to meet the needs of the metro. This political meddling has practically bankrupted the municipality and the voting population is finally getting fed up.

Now there is a crisis, the ANC brings in someone who has some track record (in a totally different arena) and expects him to turn the ship around within 12 months and fix the structural problems that have beset the municipality through years of mismanagement. This is wishful thinking, the problem requires a long-term strategy.

My concern is that if the ANC does manage to win a majority in next year’s elections, out through the revolving door goes Danny Jordaan (back to Safa) and in comes a new stream of deployed Jacob Zuma loyalists to feed at the municipal trough – kept stocked by long-suffering ratepayers.

Elsewhere – in the civilised world – executive mayors are democratically elected by the citizens. The mayor is then answerable to the electorate and not to a political party.

I am afraid our system is fundamentally flawed and if this structural problem is not rectified, we will continue on the slippery slope to chaos.