Johannesburg is facing a severe management crisis, with nine mayors and eight coalition administrations since 2016, resulting in disrupted long-term planning and a lack of continuity in senior positions. The city's institutions have been hollowed out, and its management crisis will not be fixed unless its next government puts capable people in charge. The consequences of this crisis are evident in the city's inability to keep its lights on, maintain its roads, collect refuse reliably, or manage its finances.
The city's annual reports document persistent vacancies among engineers, finance professionals, ICT specialists, project managers, and supply-chain experts. At least seven of the city's 24 most senior management positions are currently occupied by acting appointees. Furthermore, not one of the members of the Johannesburg Water board is a professionally qualified engineer, which is a shocking state of affairs for a utility facing an infrastructure renewal backlog of more than R26.6bn.
The appointment of capable leaders is crucial to addressing the city's management crisis. A new administration should focus its initial energy on three priorities: appointing a city manager with demonstrated capacity to manage turnaround processes, technical familiarity with large infrastructure organisations, and the personal standing to resist corruption and inappropriate political pressure. This appointment must be made through a visibly independent process, with publicly stated criteria, disclosed shortlists, and declared conflicts of interest.
The second priority is the utility boards, including City Power, Johannesburg Water, and Pikitup. Before filling board vacancies, a new administration must appoint the board chair of each entity, who sets the governance culture and leads the recruitment of other directors. The current chairs of these entities are all active or former members of political party structures, which must change. Board members should be appointed on three-year contracts, replacing annual renewals that have made boards vulnerable to political interference.
Once the right chair and board are in place, they must ensure the best possible CEO is leading the entity, who will be held accountable for building a capable executive team and restoring the utility's ability to deliver. The CEO must be able to build a team with the necessary technical expertise to address the city's infrastructure and service delivery challenges. A reforming administration will need a strategy to deal with pushback from officials whose positions are threatened, coalition partners, and corrupt interests benefiting from dysfunction.
The third priority is the wider administration, where a new government must identify the city's mission-critical positions and conduct an audit of who occupies them. Where senior officials cannot perform, the city should use mechanisms available under existing employment law to address the problem fairly but quickly. Numerous vacancies in critical positions should be filled urgently, and innovative, speedy interventions may be necessary to address immediate risks or understand the city's true financial position.
Johannesburg needs stable, competent, honest, and bold leadership with a mandate to kick-start delivery through bold reforms. Voters should think carefully about how they vote and if that will help fix the city. According to Ann Bernstein, executive director of the Centre for Development and Enterprise, the city's management crisis requires a comprehensive approach to address the root causes of its problems and restore service delivery.
Key points
- A new administration should prioritize appointing a city manager with demonstrated capacity to manage turnaround processes and technical familiarity with large infrastructure organisations.
- The city's utility boards, including City Power, Johannesburg Water, and Pikitup, require new leadership to restore their ability to deliver services.
- A reforming administration will need a strategy to deal with pushback from officials, coalition partners, and corrupt interests benefiting from dysfunction.
