The Danish author, Hans Christian Andersen, wrote the famous tale, The Emperor’s New Clothes, in which a vain ruler is duped into believing he is wearing magnificent garments invisible to fools and incompetents.
The story endures because it captures a widely ignored truth: everyone can see the obvious, yet few are willing to say it aloud.
That story came to mind when I read reports of President Cyril Ramaphosa and the ANC NEC’s recent visit to Nelson Mandela Bay on May 4, where the president praised mayor Babalwa Lobishe for “stabilising the metro” and “doing stellar work”, while adding that he would “like to see much more”.
In Andersen’s tale, it took the innocence of a child to point out the obvious: “But he has no clothes.”
South Africans should ask themselves why we have become so reluctant to speak plainly about government failure at national, provincial and local level when the evidence is visible all around us.
The president’s comments about Lobishe reveal a governing party more preoccupied with its own political survival than with honest governance and accountability.
If one applied even the most basic service delivery indicators to Nelson Mandela Bay today — water infrastructure, road maintenance, refuse removal, financial management, investment attraction and public confidence — this administration would fail comprehensively.
Yet this culture of self-congratulation appears contagious.
Lobishe and Johannesburg mayor Dada Morero reportedly both scored themselves eight out of 10 during a recent public engagement.
Such assessments would be laughable were the consequences for ordinary residents not so severe.
In Johannesburg’s case, this fantasy was exploded by correspondence from the minister of finance warning that the city’s wage agreement with organised labour was unaffordable and that the municipality’s finances were under extreme pressure and technically bankrupt.
Despite this, executive remuneration has continued to balloon while service delivery deteriorates.
Entity CEOs continue receiving enormous salary increases even as infrastructure crumbles and residents endure outages, potholes and decay.
This culture of comrades applauding and rewarding comrades is costing South Africans dearly.
In Nelson Mandela Bay, Lobishe’s glowing self-assessment has been similarly dismantled by her recent appearances before parliament’s portfolio committee on co-operative governance and traditional affairs, where the municipality was sharply criticised for persistent governance failures, financial instability and administrative dysfunction.
The president and ANC NEC claimed their visit to Nelson Mandela Bay was intended to conduct service delivery oversight and to determine whether planning was translating into implementation.
They also claimed to be reconnecting with the lived realities of residents.
If that was truly the purpose, one must ask — especially as a former executive mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay — what metrics the president used to conclude that the city is being “turned around”.
This is, after all, the same president who previously described Nelson Mandela Bay as “filthy”.
He was correct then, and residents know it remains true today.
If the president is unwilling to read reports from Cogta, the National Treasury or the auditor-general, he need only read the headlines of The Herald published a week after his visit.
Those headlines paint a devastatingly different picture from the fantasy presented by the ANC leadership.
One article warned that while dams may be full, governance remains critically deficient because infrastructure maintenance has collapsed.
Another detailed stern warnings issued by provincial authorities over the municipality’s failures and growing calls for intervention under Section 139 administration.
An opinion piece by local resident Sinethemba Matshaya described Nelson Mandela Bay as facing a deepening governance crisis requiring urgent intervention.
Even the letters pages were dominated by residents expressing outrage and despair over the state of the metro.
The reality is impossible to disguise.
The National Treasury has repeatedly withheld or withdrawn desperately needed grant funding because of underspending and incapacity.
Irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure continues to spiral.
Senior municipal leadership positions have become revolving doors occupied by individuals who are patently incompetent and incapable of restoring stability.
Yet despite all of this, the president continues insisting that the ANC and its mayors are clothed in the finest garments of good governance.
In truth, the emperor has no clothes.
The local government elections on November 4 loom large for the ANC across SA.
Voters are increasingly rejecting the arrogance, denialism and detachment from reality displayed by ANC leaders.
Residents of Nelson Mandela Bay already rejected ANC maladministration once before in 2016, only to see it return through political backroom dealing.
The forthcoming elections offer residents another opportunity — perhaps the last for a generation — to permanently remove a governing party that has mistaken self-preservation for public service.
• Trollip is ActionSA’s parliamentary leader
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