Party leaders clash over coalitions, graft at the Joburg debate

Leaders of the ANC, DA, EFF, IFP and ActionSA clashed over corruption, coalition governance, immigration and service delivery at Arena Holdings’ City of Johannesburg Leaders Debate on Thursday.

The debate, hosted in partnership with Wits University ahead of the November 4 local government elections, repeatedly returned to the question of whether Johannesburg’s recent history of unstable coalitions could be overcome by a single-party administration or a different coalition configuration.

DA leader Geordin Hill-Lewis argued that Johannesburg had become a “failed state” over the past decade under administrations led by both the ANC and DA, and said the DA would seek an outright majority in the city.

“If there is any person in South Africa who is capable of turning around something as broken as the City of Joburg, it is Helen,” Hill-Lewis said, referring to former DA leader Helen Zille.

On the other hand, EFF leader Julius Malema rejected the characterisation of the EFF as a source of “chaotic” coalition government, challenging Hill-Lewis to identify a municipality where the party had governed chaotically.

He pointed to the EFF’s participation in local government and said the party had MMCs responsible for health and public safety in Tshwane. He also rejected allegations that the party had sought tenders from Herman Mashaba during Mashaba’s tenure as Johannesburg mayor.

The exchange escalated when Hill-Lewis raised the VBS Mutual Bank scandal and the parliamentary findings against former EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu.

Malema disputed Hill-Lewis’s characterisation of the finding as the EFF being “found guilty” of corruption, arguing that the parliamentary finding concerned Shivambu’s failure to disclose the payment rather than a finding that the EFF had run a corrupt municipality.

Hill-Lewis also cited the political instability in Ekurhuleni as an example of what he described as coalition chaos involving the EFF. Malema rejected this, saying the dispute had been political and that there had been no finding of financial misconduct against the EFF MMCs involved.

The debate also exposed differences over immigration and ethnic mobilisation.

Malema said political mobilisation based on ethnicity or race was unsustainable and argued that SA’s constitutional order required the country to unite its population. He also rejected xenophobic vigilantism, saying ordinary citizens should not be responsible for determining whether someone was legally in the country.

IFP leader Velenkosini Hlabisa agreed that ethnic mobilisation was dangerous, but maintained that the IFP remained opposed to undocumented foreign nationals remaining in SA. He said undocumented migrants should be returned to their countries of origin through lawful processes and without violence.

ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba said illegal immigration was one of several major issues facing Johannesburg, but rejected the idea that his political identity was defined solely by the issue.

Mashaba, who served as Johannesburg mayor from 2016 to 2019, said his objective was to become mayor of Johannesburg again rather than to be associated primarily with his views on immigration.

He also attacked the DA over his previous administration, alleging that he had fired three DA MMCs for corruption and that the party had subsequently refused to remove them as councillors.

The ANC’s Nomvula Mokonyane used the debate to defend the party’s “renewal” project and its record in Johannesburg, while acknowledging the ANC’s previous shortcomings.

She said the city had been filling strategic vacancies, including bringing in engineers and other technical personnel, and was working with national government departments to strengthen revenue management.

Mokonyane said the ANC wanted revenue collected from water and electricity services to be ring-fenced so that it could return to the entities responsible for providing those services. She also said the party wanted to strengthen Pikitup’s capacity, revive its Jozi@Work programme and restore an indigent policy.

The debate ended with the parties presenting competing visions of what Johannesburg requires after years of coalition instability: the ANC emphasising institutional renewal and service delivery, the DA calling for a majority administration, ActionSA focusing on its coalition and governance record, the IFP stressing stable coalition arrangements and lawful immigration enforcement, and the EFF defending its participation in coalition governments while challenging its opponents to provide evidence of wrongdoing.