Metros must face reckoning after corruption revelations

2026-03-03 - 06:23

The rationale given as being behind the establishment of metros during the transition from apartheid to democracy was captured by the slogan “One city, one tax base”. In short, a city such as Johannesburg that had affluent areas and poverty-stricken townships would combine the tax resources of the poor and the rich to ensure the correction of historically imposed apartheid spatial planning. The result of that forward thinking has been highlighted by the high-level corruption that the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry has put in the spotlight. Ekurhuleni has become a prime example of how the project to improve life for the poor became a vehicle to hijack a whole municipality through what was the equivalent of state capture. The powers that city managers like Ekurhuleni’s Imogen Mashazi could wield over metros turned out to be more damaging than those of a Cabinet minister. On Thursday, the suspended human resources executive of Ekurhuleni, Linda Gxasheka, started giving evidence how the also suspended deputy police chief Julius Mkhwanazi, escaped disciplinary action because Gxasheka, as the HR executive, feared for her job and life if she signed the documents that would have suspended Mkhwanazi back in 2023. ALSO READ: How Johannesburg officials plan to save Metro Centre documents Gxasheka has tried to fashion a defence narrative that she did not stand in the way of having Mkhwanazi disciplined, because she knew “we might have to answer for this one day”. Although hers is a defence that appears to be thought of after the fact, or indeed, after being caught out doing things that looked like she did not think she would have to be called to account for one day, her assertion sums up what should have been part of the founding ethos for these humongous and all-powerful metros that democracy ushered in. There is an urgent need to instil in each public servant, elected or not, to perform their duties knowing that they will be called to account one day. The Madlanga commission has exposed the need to make people, who are in charge of billions of rands of taxpayers money, aware that they will be appear before professionals who will out them publicly for their questionable decisions. It has been shown that parliament is susceptible to using their numbers to protect each other and that the lack of accompanying legal sanctions for those chastised by parliament is hardly a deterrent. There may be people still fixated on “why” KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi held that bombshell July 6 press conference. ALSO READ: Tshwane cleansing levy ‘unfair double tax on residents’, AfriForum says However, all sober minds should agree that what he set in motion seven months ago has not only given the president a chance to fix the judiciary and the police, but it has given him and his government a chance to pause and reflect on every sphere of governance in South Africa. There might not be immediate constitutional changes that can ensure those who sold Ekurhuleni to criminals and corrupt networks are prevented from doing so. But a reset button has been pressed that should allow all involved in government and drafting laws to ensure a city manager or an HR executive cannot aid or standby and watch corrupt criminals hijack a city. If President Cyril Ramaphosa needed a chance to redeem and refine his shaky legacy, the commission has presented him with a golden opportunity. The morass of lies and corruption that was allowed to erode what should have been a progressive metro must never be allowed to happen elsewhere.