Even by the Alice in Wonderland standards of South African local government, the circus in Johannesburg’s boardroom yesterday produced new levels of irony.
DA executive mayor Mpho Phalatse was ousted by a “vote of no confidence”, after he was also ousted and later resigned.
Also read: Mpho Phalatse removed from office by no-confidence motion
The citizens of the richest city in the country want to have their own vote of no confidence in this collection of professional arguments that are supposed to represent us. However, we cannot do that – at least not until the next local government elections.
In the meantime, our councilors seem more concerned with irrelevant political games than trying to arrest the obvious – and ongoing – decay of the “City of Gold”.
If only as much energy went into collecting rubbish, fixing potholes and cleaning municipal parks as the conniving and backstabbing that goes on behind closed doors, then we might end up with a half-decent city.
Also read: ActionSA will put forward its own mayoral candidate to replace DA Phalatse
Clearly, there’s a lot at stake – getting close to the local gravy train, for example. And the smaller parties know they can wield power beyond their actual influence.
Nero fiddled while Rome burned. You fiddle a lot when Joburg rots.