The Johannesburg metro is stable under mayor Thapelo Amad even as he comes from Al Jama-ah, a minority party that scored less than 1% in the 2021 local government elections.
This is according to Deputy President Paul Mashatile who was grilled by MPs at the National Council of Provinces on Thursday.
Asked by the DA’s Tim Brauteseth if he supports the two private members’ bills meant to stop parties with less than 5% of the vote from forming coalition governments, Mashatile said democracy caters even for the smallest parties.
In his view, the City of Johannesburg, which has been rocked by chaos since coalition governments in 2016, is doing better under Amad, even as he comes from the benches of a less than 5% party.
“There have been many challenges in coalition governments. But coalitions by their very nature do accommodate small parties, so I am not shocked if the mayor [of Joburg comes from a small party],” said Mashatile.
“If the spirit of coalitions is to work together, you cannot say to small parties, ‘yes we want you, but you have no role’. And I think you will agree with me that Joburg is currently stable, even with the mayor from a small party.”
He continued: “Our approach must always be a constructive one, where we appreciate to work with anybody with constructive proposals. Small parties have a role to play. Let us bring them in, and where they must hold positions, let it be.”
Mashatile’s comments come as the ANC in Gauteng alongside the EFF and the Patriotic Alliance (PA) work around the clock to remove Amad. They seek to replace him with another mayor from his party.
Amad, who was installed by the three parties as mayor in January, embarrassed the Big Brother parties for shooting from the hip in media interviews, forcing them to defend him on several occasions.
His performance led to the PA threatening to pull out of the coalition partnership in Johannesburg. PA president Gayton McKenzie put his name forward as a potential replacement.
But after McKenzie was rejected by the DA, which he counted on for support to become Johannesburg’s first resident, he reneged on his threats against the ANC-dominated coalition partnership.
The parties agreed that Al Jama-ah should keep the position, as long as it is not Amad.
An ANC Gauteng leader told Sunday World that Al-Jamah provincial leader and Johannesburg councillor Kabelo Gwamanda was agreed upon by the ANC, EFF and PA to replace Amad.
“The reality is that when you work with these small parties, some of their candidates for positions are inexperienced and cannot articulate simple things and will embarrass you publicly as we have seen with Thapelo Amad,” said the ANC informant who sits in meetings where discussions happen.
“Amad is now not wanted as mayor even by his party. So, the agreement is that they will bring their provincial secretary to come in as mayor.
“It is good that it is them saying they are bringing a different person because working with small parties, you do not want to appear to be dictating to them and playing big brother.
“So, as per the original agreement, Al Jama-ah will keep the mayoral position and all partners agree including the PA, which tried their luck with DA and were rejected and came back crawling.”
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