By Zukile Majova
Political Editor
YohWhatAYear: Scrolla.Africa is counting down the heroes and horrors of 2023. At number eight on the naughty list is Premier Panyaza Lesufi.
For all of 2023, Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi has been biting off far more than he can chew.
Such is the nature of politicians who think the number of times they appear on TV means they are working hard.
And so Lesufi goes where the cameras are or drags them along wherever he goes.
Lesufi, who is also the ANC chairperson for Gauteng, started the year by ganging up against the DA mayor for Johannesburg, Dr Mpho Phalatse.
Once the DA was dislodged from power with the help of the EFF, Lesufi, who led the talks in the ANC coalition, had no candidate for the executive mayor position.
After a deadlock, he endorsed Thaphelo Amad of the Muslim party Al Jama-ah, which had won just 0.9% of the vote, to run the R80 billion city.
Out of those negotiations, the Congress of the People, another less than 1% party, took the position of speaker of the council.
The ANC took control of the cookie jar with its councillor Dada Morero, the party’s chairperson for the Johannesburg region, and the MMC responsible for finance.
A series of disasters followed and Lesufi galloped to the rescue but smiled more for the cameras than getting work done.
A methane gas explosion ripped through Bree Street in the Johannesburg CBD in May. Lesufi made promises but by year’s end, nothing had been done.
In August, a fire gutted a hijacked building belonging to the state and killed 77 people. Lesufi was there with the cameras and announced he would constitute an urgent commission of inquiry to find the cause of the fire.
The over 500 survivors who were left homeless as a result of that fire now live in shacks built by the city with no electricity, no water and no ablution facilities.
Lesufi, whose government left entire communities with no electricity for two years, is now fitting new transformers in these township communities and claiming to be doing great work for the people.
He is under pressure to win his first election in 2024. All indications are that the ANC will not secure a clear majority in Gauteng.
Pictured above: Panyaza Lesufi.
Image source: X
