The instability in the Johannesburg City Council is due to the large gap between the ANC and the opposition.

Political analyst, Professor Steven Friedman says that the ANC may be losing its supporters, but they are not moving to other parties.

This means that opposition parties have a slower growth, despite the ANC’s numbers dropping.

Friedman contends that this leaves smaller parties in the inevitable kingmaker position as coalitions become the reality.

He was speaking as the City of Johannesburg now has its first Muslim Mayor in Thapelo Amad.

Despite his party, Al Jama-ah, having a small presence in the council, it did have the support of the ANC and others.

Amad beat out Action SA’s Funzi Ngobeni and the DA’s Mpho Phalatse.

The latter was ousted for a second time during yesterday’s extraordinary council meeting.

This has raised concern about the impact that the instability in the council is having on service delivery.

But the ANC’s Gauteng chairperson, Panyaza Lesufi has refuted this claim.

He insists that the new leadership will improve service delivery and address its financial crisis.

For his part, Amad has vowed to tackle the backlog in fixing the city’s crumbling infrastructure. 

Al Jama-ah has meanwhile accused the previous administration of being obsessed with settling political scores.

This has been a general concern as coalition governments have set several municipalities back in South Africa.