PAC announces former ANC member, Thami Ka Plaatjie, as its Joburg mayoral candidate

The PAC's candidate choice is not just a local issue, but a symptom of a broader power struggle that benefits from framing infrastructure decay as a minor problem.

The contrast between the Daily Maverick's focus on Thami Ka Plaatjie and the Mail & Guardian's emphasis on Johannesburg's infrastructure crisis reveals a deliberate attempt to downplay the severity of the issue. This framing avoids accountability for the government's role in perpetuating the crisis, instead shifting attention to the PAC's candidate choice. The silence around Ka Plaatjie's background is consistent with this narrative, allowing readers to fill in the gaps with assumptions rather than facts.

This is our editorial interpretation of the cross-source evidence above, not a report of established fact. The sourced coverage it draws on is listed below.