Towards the end of last year, this newspaper published a column that sought to liken the election of Loyiso Masuku as the first-ever woman regional chairperson of the ANC in Johannesburg to the momentous occasion of the election of Ugandan-born democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani as New York mayor.
It wasn’t a very convincing comparison.
For instance, both Masuku and Mamdani may have been born outside of the cities they were now seeking to lead, but Masuku is actually South African-born, while part of the novelty about Mamdani’s story is that he actually won the mayoral chain in spite of his Ugandan-Indian parentage in a US that has generally become hostile to the outside world.
His other major distinguishing feature is that he is an anti-establishment democratic socialist.
Now in many parts of the world, this would cause no major controversy, as democratic socialists are basically social democrats – like the original Labour Party in England – people who believe that capitalism could be changed from within through parliamentary reforms. Yet in the US, some can’t distinguish between social democrats and the much-feared communists.
Masuku, on the other hand, is very much an establishment politician who, at least in the last few years, has been central to the current Johannesburg City administration. She hasn’t said or done anything, either as MMC for finance or as the new ANC chairperson, that suggests she’d run the metro differently were she to be given the mayoral chain.
Moreover, her election as regional ANC chairperson doesn’t even guarantee her that she’ll get the nod from Luthuli House as the party’s mayoral candidate in November’s local government elections.
But talks in the ANC corridors of power are that the party is seriously mulling over choosing a candidate with a national pedigree and much more experience in running institutions than Masuku in the hope that this would convince city voters not to choose the DA’s Helen Zille as the next mayor.
However, the Masuku backer’s reference to Mamdani in that column did get one thinking.
Seeing that Zille’s candidature seems to be rejuvenating the DA’s traditional constituencies in the suburbs and winning the party significant sections of a black middle class that is tired of water cuts, potholes and the general dysfunctional state of the city, how do those who believe that her election as mayor would mark doomsday for the city respond?
While in the past it may have been possible to get away with claiming that Zille and the DA would re-introduce some of apartheid in the city were they to get their hands on city power, that argument becomes hard to make in the context of the government of national unity, where DA ministers are in the cabinet and are not using the portfolios they control to take the party back to the old dark days.
Seeing that Zille’s candidature seems to be rejuvenating the DA’s traditional constituencies in the suburbs and winning the party significant sections of a black middle class that is tired of water cuts, potholes and the general dysfunctional state of the city, how do those who believe that her election as mayor would mark doomsday for the city respond?
What other convincing argument can the ANC come up with to make the Johannesburg electorate stick with it? But opposition to Zille and the DA’s brand of politics is not the exclusive reserve of the ANC. There are many other organisations and individuals in the city who believe that her election would result in policies that would be detrimental to the poor.
To resolve the water crisis, she’d probably agitate for more involvement of the private sector – eventually resulting in partial or wholesale privatisation of bulk infrastructure which may, in the long run, lead to water becoming too expensive for the poor.
So, what if those who believe that water is a public resource that should never be left to private hands to manage, and get profit out of, came together and formed a loose front to oppose what some perceive as an imminent drift to the right in Johannesburg?
They would probably not have a Mamdani-like candidate to take on Zille, but such a platform can sure draw from the strengths and experience of civic, trade union, church and student leaders and activists who have been agitating for the state to play a more active role in social and economic development.
Such groups would probably be more successful than the DA and its fellow travellers in convincing disgruntled former ANC constituencies not to abandon the democratic system altogether.
In the era of coalition politics, this left-leaning platform or front need not form itself into a single and coherent political party. They can be a tactical alliance, where they come together on issues they agree on and part ways where they disagree.
Regardless of whether Zille eventually makes it as mayor or not, the existence of such a left-leaning caucus in council may help bring back political life to a council hall that, over the last few years, has been about back-stabbings, behind- the-scenes horse trading and no real political ideas on how to fix the city.
