What awaits new Joburg mayor after Gwamanda

Residents expect change from incoming leader

Jeanette Chabalala Senior Reporter
Kabelo Gwamanda briefs the media outside the Usindiso building which caught fire in August 2023 in the inner city, on corner Alberts and Delvers streets, 76 people died.
Kabelo Gwamanda briefs the media outside the Usindiso building which caught fire in August 2023 in the inner city, on corner Alberts and Delvers streets, 76 people died.
Image: Papi Morake

Collapsed infrastructure, spiraling cable theft that threatened the stability of Joburg’s major highway, shortage of fire engines, poor finances and disasters.

This is the legacy Kabelo Gwamanda leaves behind after announcing his resignation as Joburg mayor yesterday.

His low-key tenure was punctuated by disasters and service delivery failures which some Joburg residents who spoke to Sowetan yesterday said his successor must prioritise. He also presided over a city that introduced the controversial R200 surcharge fee for prepaid electricity users 

Residents said illegal electricity connections, storm water drain infrastructure, non-functioning streetlights and persistent water challenges were some of the issues the new mayor would have to attend to urgently.

Enos Maake, a community leader at Zandspruit informal settlement, said whoever takes over must urgently deal with illegal connections. “There’s a lot of izinyoka [illegal connections], so this is a matter of life and death. It is very urgent."

Maake said City Power should instal proper electricity connections in their area with prepaid meters in shacks as this “will also ensure the city makes revenue as well”.

Gwamanda was “not
equipped” for the position, and the people who enabled him to be the mayor should be blamed for challenges the city faces, which include service delivery and poor finances
Kagiso Pooe

Imaad Hajat, chairperson of the Sandhurst Community Association, said water was a constant issue in her community, to the point where she had to buy a Jojo tank.

Hajat said they have been experiencing water challenges for over two months now. “Our pipes need to be changed because every two days, [they] leak. We are still using the copper water lines but now they are replacing them with plastic ones, and every time they leak, they cut them and put plastic [ones] ... then two days later the next area has no water," she said. 

Hajat also said the new mayor should prioritise streetlights, which she said have not been working for years. “I have been in this area for at least five years, and I don’t know the streetlights to ever have worked. In the evening it is pitch dark and it poses a security risk.” 

Two months after Gwamanda’s election as mayor in July last year, an explosion rocked Lillian Ngoyi Street (formerly Bree Street), leaving one person dead and 48 others injured.

The explosion was believed to have been caused by methane gas under the city’s major arterial route.

In the same month, GCR Ratings, an affiliate of Moody’s Investors Service, downgraded Joburg’s credit rating and revised its outlook from stable to negative, highlighting cash flow challenges in SA’s economic and financial hub.

This weakened Joburg’s ability to pay back its loans, which also contributed to the higher cost of borrowing for the cash-strapped metro.

A month later in August, a fire broke out a Usindiso, a hijacked building in Marshalltown in the Joburg CBD, and 76 people died.  

The disasters became a defining feature of Gwamanda’s days in office. He became the city’s eighth mayor, succeeding his fellow Al Jama-ah councillor Thapelo Amad, who also had a short stint as Joburg’s number one citizen.

Public policy specialist at the Wits School of Governance, Dr Kagiso Pooe, said Gwamanda was “not equipped” for the position, and the people who enabled him to be the mayor should be blamed for challenges the city faces, which include service delivery and poor finances.

Pooe said for business people, the impact of changing mayors regularly has been hard and getting business buy-in had been slow.

In March, many parts of Joburg experienced water challenges when lightning hit the Eikenhof pump station, which supplies water to most parts of Joburg. Residents endured dry taps for weeks, leading to growing discontent about the city's failure to deliver services.

In May, parts of Joburg were left without power as firefighters scrambled for more than 18 hours to put out a blaze that threatened to collapse the M1 highway double-decker bridge. The fire was sparked by cable thieves who burnt the 88-volt cable running along the sides of the bridge. 

A tender to purchase fire trucks is yet to be awarded after years of delays, leaving the city in short of capacity to adequately respond to disasters.

Dr Thokozani Chilenga-Butao, a lecturer in political studies at Wits University, said Gwamanda would probably be remembered as a mayor who was reluctant and hesitant to do a lot of things, “precisely because he appeared to be inexperienced”.

She said: “We saw when Lilian Ngoyi [Street] exploded. The mayor didn’t appear to have any reaction or response except when accompanied by the [Gauteng] premier and a whole team of people behind him, and that was quite worrying. 

“It appears that all service delivery issues at different levels have worsened. With a mayor that appears to be unresponsive to these issues, that creates a wider problem, and people asking if we have a mayor who is responsive and understands his role or whether we have a mayor who was conveniently put into this place so the dominant political party can figure out who they really want in this important position...and unfortunately for him and for the city it backfired.” 

According to Joburg speaker's spokesperson Vusi Gumbi, ANC’s Dada Morero, who is the city’s former mayor, is the only nominee to succeed Gwamanda.

The city council is expected to elect a new mayor on Friday.

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