S’THEMBISO MSOMI | Left-leaning caucus may bring back political life in Joburg

Towards the end of last year, this newspaper published a column that sought to liken the election ofLoyiso Masukuas the first-ever woman regional chairperson of the ANC in Johannesburg to the momentous occasion of the election of Ugandan-born democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani as New York mayor. For instance, both Masuku andMamdanimay have been born outside of the cities they were now seeking to lead, but Masuku is actually South African-born, while part of the novelty about Mamdani’s story is that he actually won the mayoral chain in spite of his Ugandan-Indian parentage in a US that has generally become hostile to the outside world. His other major distinguishing feature is that he is an anti-establishment democratic socialist.

Now in many parts of the world, this would cause no major controversy, as democratic socialists are basically social democrats – like the original Labour Party in England – people who believe that capitalism could be changed from within through parliamentary reforms. Yet in the US, some can’t distinguish between social democrats and the much-feared communists. Moreover, her election as regional ANC chairperson doesn’t even guarantee her that she’ll get the nod from Luthuli House as the party’s mayoral candidate in November’s local government elections.

But talks in the ANC corridors of power are that the party is seriously mulling over choosing a candidate with a national pedigree and much more experience in running institutions than Masuku in the hope that this would convince city voters not to choose the DA’s Helen Zille as the next mayor. However, the Masuku backer’s reference to Mamdani in that column did get one thinking. Seeing that Zille’s candidature seems to be rejuvenating the DA’s traditional constituencies in the suburbs and winning the party significant sections of a black middle class that is tired of water cuts, potholes and the general dysfunctional state of the city, how do those who believe that her election as mayor would mark doomsday for the city respond? While in the past it may have been possible to get away with claiming that Zille and the DA would re-introduce some of apartheid in the city were they to get their hands on city power, that argument becomes hard to make in the context of the government of national unity, where DA ministers are in the cabinet and are not using the portfolios they control to take the party back to the old dark days.