As voters prepare to head to the polls, Johannesburg faces an uncomfortable choice between political allegiance and basic service delivery.
Polls suggest the DA’s Helen Zille could secure the most votes in Johannesburg on Wednesday. Not because Johannesburg has turned white, but because it has lost faith.
Residents of Soweto, Alexandra or Orange Farm face a brutal, cynical choice at the ballot box: to have a government they regard as racist that picks up their rubbish, fixes their streetlights and keeps the water running, or a corrupt government that looks like them but has eaten everything, including the cheese?
Many may choose the government they regard as racist.
That sentence is painful. It is shameful to admit. But that is where the ANC has taken us.
The cat that catches mice
Many people believe the only way to make South Africa work is for black and white South Africans to work towards the same vision: building a state that delivers services to the people.
Deng Xiaoping said it best: “It does not matter whether a cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice.”
In South Africa, we have changed it slightly: the colour of the cat — black or white — no longer matters, as long as it protects the cheese and catches the mice.
And to many, the ANC has moved the cheese, hidden the cheese and then eaten the cheese. Worse, it has let the mice run amok.
Thus, it has become easier for historically white-dominated parties — including the Freedom Front Plus — to make inroads into black communities and attract black voters. Not because black voters have become white, but because the ANC has vacated the space of service delivery.
When your substation explodes and City Power says there is no cable, but a DA ward councillor from Randburg shows up with a contractor, ideology dies. When you queue for three days for water while hearing about working municipal services in DA-run areas, the manifesto means nothing.
Service delivery has become the new ideology.
Both protect capital, one fixes the pothole
What makes it worse is that the ANC is now seen by many as a protector and defender of white economic interests.
After all, where does the ANC get its funding? From the same centres of economic power that support Zille. From donors in Sandton who hedge their bets. Both parties court wealthy donors. Both promise stability for capital.
So the voter asks a logical, devastating question: if both protect white capital, why not vote for the one that at least fixes the potholes, keeps the taps running and ensures a reliable electricity supply?
It is not love for the DA. It is a divorce from the ANC.
This is the sea Helen Zille is swimming into as she runs for mayor of Johannesburg. She is not swimming because she is loved. She is swimming because the water is empty and the ANC has left the pool.
Johannesburg is not voting for racism. It is voting for rubbish collection. And that is the most damning indictment of the liberation movement.
For a city that was at the heart of the freedom struggle to even consider Zille — a politician whose statements on colonialism, race and black governance have drawn accusations of racism, including criticism from within her own party — tells you how far the cheese has been moved.
The question after Wednesday will not simply be why Joburg voted for Zille.
The question will be: what did the ANC do to make Zille look like the better mouse-catcher?
