Let it not be said that, in South Africa, second chances aren’t abundant. Just look at our politicians: they’ve made an art out of failing upwards. Exhibit A: Kabelo Gwamanda.
From mayor of Johannesburg to the purgatory of the Joburg department of community development, Al Jama-ah’s golden boy has now risen to deploy his remarkable insights at national level. Indeed, Gwamanda last Wednesday attended the first meeting of the government of national unity’s (GNU’s) “clearing house” committee as a representative for his 0.2% political party.
It’s no small matter; the clearing house committee, with the technical committee and the political leaders’ forum, aims to resolve differences between partners in the unity government. Given that there are light years between the DA and ANC on some points, it could be a gargantuan task – and it makes the mechanism essential to the ongoing stability of the GNU. So, a place to put your best people. Or anyone but a cardboard cut-out masquerading as a political leader.
Who can forget the glorious 16 months Gwamanda spent spinning in his mayoral chair while South Africa’s economic hub slid into the litter-strewn gutter with which it has become synonymous. Heady days indeed.
While he pocketed north of R1.5m a year, the city’s beleaguered residents faced a rapid increase in costs – and the kind of cratering service delivery that makes the potholes look benign. As Outa’s Wayne Duvenage has pointed out, there was the hijacked building that burnt down with massive loss of life and scant accountability; Lilian Ngoyi Road blowing up (it has yet to be repaired); the metro centre – the nerve centre of the municipality – being vacated after it was declared unsafe. And don’t even mention the failing water and sanitation infrastructure, the roads, the grime, the crime.
And when called upon to scrap a surcharge on prepaid electricity, Gwamanda – a beacon of compassion – called those who objected to the tariff “stooges”.
Yet when calls mounted for him to quit, he claimed it was a co-ordinated attack – “a clarion call from those that have united against a black child to send a strong message to stay in your place or suffer the consequences”. Sad.
Return from the dead
His elevation to the clearing house committee is not the first time Gwamanda has staged a Lazarus-like recovery.
Back in 2011/2012 he ran a company called iThemba Lama Afrika, to which unwitting customers paid monthly dues for funeral insurance. Only, when it came time to pay out, Gwamanda was allegedly nowhere to be seen. A complainant in a criminal case told the police that she’d been told the directors of the company had died – until she saw Gwamanda on TV, resurrected as mayor of Joburg. Praise be.
Of course, it didn’t help that the regulator, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority, after an investigation last year found his company was not registered to offer funeral insurance in the first place.
So on Friday, just two days after his grand entrance into national politics, Gwamanda was arrested for fraud.
Not one to deviate from a plan, he again pulled the pity card. In a bizarre video posted on X on Sunday – complete with backdrop of a swimming pool and forlorn trampoline – Gwamanda, when asked about being arrested, said: “In South Africa as a country, growing up black, it’s a possibility that none of us can avoid, regardless of the path you choose – whether to serve or whether to engage in nefarious activities.”
In a pleasant change for South African politics, Gwamanda’s arrest may finally inconvenience his political ambitions. Joburg mayor-of-the-moment Dada Morero on Monday said the charges likely meet the criteria of the ANC’s “step-aside” rule, which the party expects its partners in government to adhere to. A day later, Morero put Gwamanda on special leave.
Of course, he has not gone so far as to actually remove Gwamanda from his executive. Which means the tainted former mayor is probably enjoying a vacay with full pay. But for a change it means Morero is actually doing something; short of a few photo-ops and a pledge to News24 that we shouldn’t expect much of his term in office, he’s been conspicuously absent.
Gwamanda’s party certainly won’t recall him. After all, it railed against his removal as mayor despite his eyewatering incompetence. Now, Al Jama-ah party leader Ganief Hendricks has called the timing of his arrest “highly suspicious”, suggesting that it’s got something to do with Gwamanda’s appointment to the clearing house committee and ahead of the controversial renaming of Sandton Drive to Leila Khaled Drive. Intrigue around every corner.
When he’s not impugning the integrity of the criminal justice authorities by suggesting wild conspiracies, Hendricks has downplayed the incident, congratulating Gwamanda for his “co-operation and courage” amid “allegations that, 15 years ago, there was R10,000 involved in a funeral scheme that went sour”.
Now, Al Jam-ah claims to be “a trusted political party” that promotes “Fairness, Integrity, Accountability.” That Gwamanda hasn’t been forced to take a leave of absence from the party to clear his name gives the lie to that. It’s an indictment of the quality of our parties that the likes of grossly inept, tainted politicians like Gwamanda are given nine lives in politics – and that their parties see fit to elevate them to positions of power.
Top image: Kabelo Gwamanda, Photo by Gallo Images/Sharon Seretlo.