eThekwini mayor candidates vow to quit if they miss targets as water crisis dominates debate

Mayoral candidates in eThekwini were asked on Wednesday whether they would step down if their administrations failed to deliver, and several said they would. The question came at a debate in Durban hosted by IOL ahead of the local government elections on November 4, as reported by that outlet on 24 October.

Water was the ground the argument kept returning to. The ANC’s Thabani Nyawose told the debate the city’s biggest problem is water, and said his party had already invested heavily in addressing it. He said the party had facilitated 98 boreholes and had plans to deal with the water-related failures, and that infrastructure in the city is being replaced. “I believe that we will be elected,” he said.

ActionSA’s Zwakele Mncwango put a number on his own promise. He said a mayor under his party would step down if party targets were missed, and that an ActionSA administration would insure plumbers so that water leaks and other faults could be answered within 48 hours. He also said politicians should hold an oversight role rather than interfere in municipal administration, and that officials who break the law would be dealt with “without fear or favour”.

The MK Party’s Thami Mkhize said his party does not believe in cadre deployment, which he said “killed the administration and the municipality”. He said the party wants people hired on merit, and that it has set a master’s degree as the minimum qualification for a mayor. The DA’s Alicia Kissoon, who said she chairs the party’s provincial disciplinary committee, said anyone who does not follow the constitution and the country’s laws would be removed from office if the DA wins a majority in the city. She confirmed a DA mayor would step down if party targets were not met.

The EFF’s Hlengiwe Mkhaliphi said officials “sleeping on the job” would not survive an EFF administration. “We will not replace the tendency with a tendency,” she said, adding that the party would remove officials she described as rude.

The Minority Front’s Shameen Thakur-Rajbansi promised to tackle corruption, reduce crime and deliver basic services, and said she would resign voluntarily if she did not meet her party’s targets during her time as mayor.

The IFP’s Selvan Govender used his time to explain the arithmetic of the council rather than make a delivery promise. He said residents cannot remove a mayor by protesting or marching, and that a party with only two seats in the municipal council cannot remove a mayor either. A motion of no confidence and caucus support are needed, he said, and changing the direction of the council requires a majority of seats in it.

That is the practical question hanging over the pledges. eThekwini is a metro government, and the mayor is chosen by the council rather than directly by voters. A candidate who promises to resign on a missed target is promising to answer to a party, and the voters’ leverage runs through the seat count Govender described.

What residents will notice first is unchanged by any pledge: whether water comes out of the tap, and how long a leak runs before somebody fixes it. The debate put a 48-hour response target and a borehole count in front of voters. The election on November 4 is where they get to answer.