Note to Editors: Please find an English soundbite by Ald Cilliers Brink here
At the weekend the Gauteng premier and ANC leader Panyaza Lesufi blamed the Democratic Alliance (DA) for the poor state of service delivery in Tshwane.
It is clear that Lesufi is providing foreword cover for what can only be a dismal ANC offer in the 2026 local government elections. Since the ANC lost its council majorities in Gauteng, starting in 2016, it has made these councils ungovernable.
Lesufi himself has been at the forefront of local government failures and coalition chaos, including in Tshwane.
In 2020 he was part of the disastrous attempt by the Gauteng provincial executive to dissolve Tshwane’s city council. The pretext of this intervention was the chaos caused by ANC and EFF councillors staging walkouts and preventing council meetings from having quorate meetings.
Gauteng provincial administrators, most of whom were part of Lesufi’s ANC faction, left the city with more than a R4 billion operating deficit.
In 2023 Lesufi personally canvassed for Dr Murunwa Makwarela to be elected as the mayor of Tshwane, just as he had done for puppet mayors from small parties in Joburg and Ekurhuleni.
Makwarela was elected with the support of a few errant ActionSA councillors, but had to resign a few days later for being an unrehabilitated insolvent, and then faking a High Court rehabilitation order. When all these attempts had failed, Lesufi finally managed to get ActionSA’s leadership to defect to the ANC and elected their own puppet mayor.
Since then, service delivery in Tshwane has deteriorated badly, with money budgeted for water and electricity teams being reallocated to water tanker and security contractors in the coalition’s first budget adjustment. One of the security companies that benefitted from this re-allocated belongs to ANC deputy mayor Bonzo Modise, a conflict of interest he has apparently not cared to manage.
Lesufi’s legacy as MEC, Premier and Gauteng ANC leader in has not just been one of failure, but of active sabotage of attempts at good government.