Why does the ANC govern so badly? There are many good people in the party and one wonders why those in government deliver such poor administration wherever the ANC rules. One sees this at national government level, provincial level, and in spades at local level.
The ANC usually blames apartheid. Did apartheid give people such low expectations that they are prepared to put up with virtually anything?
Take Johannesburg as an example. This city aspires to be a ‘world class African city.' What it is, however much we Johannesburgers love it, is a rather run down apology that in no way compares for efficiency, effective municipal administration or cleanliness with Cape Town.
Cape Town looks pristine; its streets and pavements are clean, its roads are in good repair, the rubbish bins do not stand everywhere overflowing and waiting for days and weeks to be emptied. Traffic lights are not perpetually malfunctioning and waiting, seemingly forever, to be restored so that they can fail again the next week, causing almighty traffic congestion. Municipal accounts in Cape Town are in order and not qualified by the auditor-general. Statements for municipal services are generally correct and properly rendered. Queries are attended to promptly.
Cape Town enjoys obvious advantages of natural beauty but what is the essential difference between it and Johannesburg? Surely it is the party running the municipality.
Some people look back with nostalgia to the Ian Davidson days when he chaired the management committee in a DP-led Johannesburg city council. Many citizens today would gladly swop the current administration for that one: they were competent and they knew what they were doing.