As the November 4 municipal election approaches, Johannesburg’s mayoral race has evolved into a high-stakes clash of political heavyweights. However, voters say service delivery records matter more than personalities.
The battle for control of Johannesburg is believed to be one of the most closely watched contests. According to an Ipsos survey, the ANC is projected to secure 31% of the vote in the city, compared with 28% for its fierce challenger, the DA.
The two parties received 33.6% and 26.5% of the vote respectively in the last municipal election five years ago.
The city is beset by a range of service delivery problems, including ageing infrastructure, governance issues, and failures in water supply and refuse collection. The city’s financial mismanagement has been so severe that the National Treasury temporarily cut off its funding.
The DA has nominated Helen Zille, the former mayor of Cape Town, while the ANC has yet to confirm its candidate.
Last month the party named three applicants for the mayoral candidate position: incumbent mayor Dada Morero, his deputy Loyiso Masuku, and struggle veteran Reverend Frank Chikane.
Other candidates who have put their names forward for mayor include ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba, Rise Mzansi’s Lukhona Mnguni, the EFF’s Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng, African Transformation Movement leader Vuyo Zungula and former Midvaal municipality mayor Bongani Baloyi for the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP).
Ward 12 resident Takalani Mokase, who has seen Johannesburg’s mayoral candidates smiling at him from posters on streetlights for weeks, said he had no interest in the personalities of the mayoral candidates or their charm offensive on the campaign trail.
“Helen Zille came, she was doing adverts with the potholes and everything. Now you will see them acting like they are fixing those things,” Mokase said.
For the 44-year-old, his vote will not be decided by the faces of politicians or the personalities they display but on their party’s track record in delivering services.
This is a sentiment experts say is common across South Africa, where personality-driven voting remains rare, with voters sticking with parties based on service delivery.
In Roodepoort, Vusimuzi Mlangeni, who disclosed his voting intention, said he would not necessarily vote for Zille because of her personal appeal, but because of her political party’s service delivery track record.
“Most of the time when things go wrong, DA councillors actually follow up. If it’s a water issue, for example, there would be follow-ups and tracking of what the council or the city has done. They would have a record saying, ‘I reported this matter in February, March, April, May, June’,” he said.
He added that he will not be swayed by mayoral personalities, but by which party can fix the potholes, keep the lights on and the taps running.
He, however, said he would be disappointed by mayoral candidates who lose and choose not to serve on the opposition in council but instead return to their previous jobs.
This is because some of the Joburg mayoral candidates have jobs either as political party leaders or Members of Parliament.
Bruce Ndlovu said his choice on election day will be driven by the political party’s performance over the past year, with the mayoral candidate’s personality being only a secondary consideration.
Ndlovu said he expects all contenders to remain in council and serve residents even if they fail to secure enough votes to govern or enter a coalition, saying: “I would be disappointed if someone does not get the mayoral post and decides to leave.”
Political analyst Professor Ntsikelelo Breakfast said mayoral candidates are not conducting campaigns under the umbrella of “first-past-the-post or constituency-based system whereby a person is an embodiment of himself or herself”.
“They are still being examined by the voters in relation to their political homes,” he said, adding that a candidate’s history matters, but so does the party they represent.
He pointed out that in Johannesburg there is a large middle class that doesn’t vote “in relation to political nostalgia, but votes in relation to public policy issues ... the track record”.
Independent political analyst Zakes Moabelo agreed that in South Africa, voters pay more attention to the party than the individual.
According to him, history has shown that even a person of good character is unlikely to deliver results if they belong to a party that does not value their qualifications.
“Most of the time people complain about certain individuals holding certain positions, but in the end, there is nobody to ensure that person is held accountable. So far, I don’t see personality playing a very big role. It doesn’t matter much to the electorate in South Africa,” he said.
Moabelo, however, cited MKP leader and former president Jacob Zuma as an exception, saying his personality alone can draw voters to his party.
“If he goes to an election, he doesn’t have to put a manifesto forward. His character alone is enough,” he said.
Asked whether voters would be justified in feeling betrayed when losing mayoral candidates choose not to serve on the opposition benches and instead leave, Moabelo said: “Someone who understands how politics works won’t feel betrayed, because politics is a game of numbers. If you don’t have the numbers, even if you have aspirations to transform people’s lives, you are unlikely to achieve that goal.”
rapula.moatshe@nationalmg.co.za