Joburg awaits election of its 8th mayor in seven years

Joburg City Council. Picture: Timothy Bernard/ African News Agency

Joburg City Council. Picture: Timothy Bernard/ African News Agency

Published May 5, 2023

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Johannesburg - Local politicians will ascended to the Johannesburg Municipal Council Chambers on Friday once more to elect the eighth mayor in the City of Johannesburg since 2016.

The merry-go-round of mayors is expected to continue today as council sits once more after Tuesday’s meeting to elect a mayor collapsed because of ill preparation from the ANC coalition, which was in disarray over disagreements over the preferred mayoral candidate.

Some ANC councillors had threatened to boycott council or even resign if an Al-Jama-ah candidate was chosen as the preferred candidate. The Star understands that a faction in the ANC was pushing for Kabelo Gwamanda from Al-Jama-ah to become the mayor, but this has been met with great resistance, especially from supporters of ANC regional chairperson Dada Morero. Three candidates from the minority parties aligned to the ANC had raised their hands for the position, including Colleen Makhubele from COPE and Margaret Arnolds from the AIC.

The Star understands that the ANC had found itself in a dilemma with differing views from national, provincial and regional structures as to how to approach coalitions. Sources in the ANC spoke of a high-level meeting between the Johannesburg regional leaders in the province and the secretary general of the ANC, Fikile Mbalula, to iron out disagreements over the mayoral candidate. It was not clear what came out of that meeting, but although The Star reached out to all structures of the ANC for comment, there was none.

Meanwhile, the ANC’s coalition partners said they were waiting for the ANC to come up with a name for the position of mayor. The name was expected to come from the members of the minority parties.

On the other hand the opposition’s coalition partners also met on Thursday to discuss the reconfiguration of the multi-party coalition that the DA led during its time in power.

It was not clear if the DA would pull back Mpho Phalatse as a mayoral candidate and throw its support behind ActionSA’s Funzi Ngobeni, who already enjoys the support of the majority of coalition partners.

DA Gauteng leader Solly Msimanga said the DA had officially opened talks with other parties. He said the DA was concerned about the instability of the City of Johannesburg.

“We share the belief of the residents of Johannesburg that the trustworthiness and reliability of all coalition partners is essential to building a reliable coalition. We continue to work towards finding this foundation in Johannesburg,” Msimanga said.

Whoever is elected the new mayor will be faced with the task of uniting all coalition partners behind one vision, and putting aside political and other differences. It has been reported that an amount of about R500 000 has been spent each time a council meeting is called to elect a new mayor.

The Star