Political instability if S.A. metros easily addressed.

 Following a series of votes of no-confidence the Executive Mayor of Johannesburg was (again) removed from the post on Thursday January 26. On Friday a new Executive Mayor drawn from a tiny religious party (Al-Jamah) was appointed as the new mayor of the largest city in the country. Executive authority in the city now seems more fragile than ever before - the new mayor will be in office for only as long as rival coalitions are absent. Part deals, by-elections etc. may result in the new mayor being deposed at very short notice. As long as no political party has a clear majority in council the post of Executive Mayor will be insecure.

The post of Executive Mayor is extremely influential and changes in the mayorship results in the appointment of a new mayoral committee. More importantly the changes immediately impact on the objectives and priorities of the city. Consequently in all metros where coalitions are required Executive Mayors are insecure and service delivery is hostage to political interests.

The Executive Mayor system was adopted across virtually all the metropolitan municipalities where a single  party has a clear majority. The system came to be entrenched in metros and smaller cities across the country. However as the influence of the ruling party waned giving rise to the need for coalitions the political instability that now typifies local government rose.

However at the heart of the current instability is not coalition politics itself. Bemoaning the need for coalitions is to condemn voters for reconsidering their political choices and to blame instability on their lack of political uniformity. Rather the problem is the attempt by metros to run coalitions under what is largely an authoritarian system that of the Executive Mayor.

Executive Mayors are authoritative figures which are enormously influential. Executive Mayors appoint members of the Mayoral Committee to assist them but are not held to account by that committee. Executive Mayors are meant to be held to account for how well the administration performs and they report back to the city council annually. For the most part they are afforded immense latitude in how they execute city affairs. This latitude and intermittent accountability makes the post of Executive Mayor pivotal to city business and makes it a post highly desirable to those seeking power and influence. This influence heightens the competition for the post - giving rise to the instability now evident.

Fortunately the Municipal Structures Act allows for metros to be run under one of two primary systems. The most prominent being that of Executive Mayor. The less familiar alternative is that of a "collective executive". Under this system the city is run by an executive committee. The executive committee assumes responsibility for managing city affairs and makes the important decisions -  with the post of mayor being largely ceremonial. Council decisions are taken collectively. The legislation requires that the composition of the committee to reflect the composition of council (and it thus reflects residents voting patterns). This ensures that all the main political parties participate in executive authority (and prevents executive authority being vested in political parties without significant support).  

Unlike under the Executive Mayor system the deliberations of the Collective Executives are open as is the way members vote. The Collective Executive thus promotes transparency and, consequently, we are able to hold representatives accountable. Moreover the collective system removes the incentive parties have to destabilise the administration. When you are party to decision making you have no incentive to propose a vote of no-confidence in the decision makers or replace the current executive.

In the past various Metros (Cape Town and eThekwini for example) have been run under Collective Executive systems. However this has always been when no one political party was dominant. When a party did become dominant it was expedient to revert to Executive mayorships.

Hopefully our elected representatives in Johannesburg (and Tshwane, Ekuruhleni, eThekwini, Nelson Mandela......) will soon choose to put aside their lust for power and start working as a collective.