There’s an adage that runs along the lines of “before you can solve a problem, you have to see it first”.
And in a complex world, seeing enough of the problem is harder sometimes than solving it.
That Nelson Mandela Bay is broken and teetering on collapse now seems to be common cause.
In my last column I spoke of the two elephants fighting that flatten the grass and how, with 10 mayoral changes in the last three election cycles, much of the problem lies with the ANC inflicting their losses upon themselves.
They truly are their own worst enemy and the electorate have responded in kind, taking away seats in every election and leaving them without a majority in the last two rounds.
Doing more of the same does not bring different results.
In a simple world, the baton should then pass on to the other team, our other elephant in the room.
And the local DA is making a strong case with their mayoral choice and approach to coalitions that they should continue to govern, and that the path to a working Nelson Mandela Bay is via their leadership.
Certainly, the success of the holiday season would appear to back their case.
Our beachfront shone bright between the disaster zone of eThekwini and Cape Town’s sewage-swamped beaches.
But, in a complex world, solutions are never that simple.
And there’s two fundamental realities to our metro that will bedevil any way forward unless it’s understood and incorporated into any solution.
The first is the baseline reality that life in the townships is very different to life in the suburbs.
The inconvenient truth is that the areas where we live are different, and can be consistently grouped with regards to economic status, race, language, culture and political affiliation.
By example, Stats SA’s census data of 2011 had us still living to a large extent in the racial places apartheid and colonialism had put us in.
But with a key exception, the suburbs have become more mottled as middle-class black people have moved out of the township and settled in suburbia — reinforcing the economic divide.
It is an economic divide which is confirmed when looking at property values, with almost all houses valued under R600,000 located in the townships, and the majority of properties above that located in the suburbs.
In the 2021 election, about 14 months ago, 75% of the southern suburbs voted for the DA, and just more than 70% of the townships voted for the ANC.
The northern areas sit somewhere in between; 53% voted DA, with only 18% voting for the ANC.
Those political divisions hold largely true for Despatch and Kariega, too.
And while our metro is very diverse, it is also very divided, with the DA and ANC giving voice to very different constituencies and interests.
The other reality is that the work of delivering services and developing (and maintaining) infrastructure within the metro, crucial to resident and ecosystem wellbeing, is done by the city’s administration, not by its politicians.
And like our metro generally, that organisation is effectively broken.
That’s not to suggest that there are not highly competent and dedicated individuals working their hearts out within the municipality, but generally, the organisation is silo-bound, red-tape heavy, under-resourced, understaffed, and its efficiency affected greatly by internal fiefdoms, external vested interests and the criminal looting of metro assets.
For instance, as procurement is centralised, the relatively simple matter of failing to renew a fuel supply contract has the entire metro fleet confined to the parking lot while sewers and rubbish overflow.
In addition, much of the work of the municipality has been outsourced, and while it was the hot-button strategy taught at business schools in the 1990s, it adds an unnecessary chain in the decision-making process and slows everything to a bone-grinding crawl.
Add to which it gives those outsourced service providers leverage, their loyalty is to their bottom line, and withholding services or obstructing access to municipal infrastructure until they get their way is a common spanner in their toolbox.
The first reality isn’t an easy solve.
Together the ANC and the DA represent 80% of the metro’s voters.
It makes infinite sense that they partner to cross the divides and the different constituencies.
But that relationship must be voluntary, by negotiated agreement, whether it is 48 seats in council or four in the gazetted executive committee.
Unless the two elephants meet and negotiate, changing the number of chairs will not change the relationship.
The two elephants have consistently resisted the opportunity.
It leaves us with the second-best option whereby the one elephant works with the menagerie of other parties, which together have a broader reach across constituencies.
At present, we are five months into version two of that option and it appears to be holding and starting to deliver.
Scuppering that via means of the deliberate stayaway of ANC councillors to undermine a council quorum, when the speaker who runs the council process remains the same, is a self-serving manipulation of the rules, not a principled stand.
A councillor represents their constituency by taking their seat in council, not by twiddling their thumbs outside on the pavement.
The second reality is a harder solve, as in the main those who staff the metro have their roots in the township or the northern areas.
While their cars may be parked in the leafy suburbs, their hearts remain loyal to the township and possibly to the original intent of the struggle.
And they may view a DA-led coalition as an updated version of the return to the past; where white interests once ruled, now suburban interests call the tune.
And for the DA, who have nationally adopted a policy of colour-blindness and covered their mirrors, it’s all too easy to reach for allegations of corruption as the escape clause.
And therein the real opportunity, if the current coalition and the current administration could reach across the divide, they could form a powerful force to both implement the original intent of the struggle and to get the metro working for all.
Surely that is in everyone’s best interests?
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