Joburg expected to have a new mayor ‘by Friday’, ANC to lead again

African National Congress (ANC) regional secretary, Sasabona Manganye says that the City of Johannesburg will have a new mayor soon.

Manganye confirmed negotiations for the resignation of the current mayor, Kabelo Gwamanda were underway.

“By Friday next week you will have a new mayor that comes from the African National Congress. There won’t be any December issue,” he said on Saturday.

ANC will lead the City of Joburg

Manganye told Newzroom Afrika that the ANC has always held a view that the mayor of Johannesburg should come from the ANC, despite the fact that the party had not one an outright majority in the 2021 local government elections.

“For the ANC to take over its is in the best interest of the people of Johannesburg because we are responsible for about 86 wards,” he said.

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According to Manganye, it was likely that the chairperson of the Joburg region Dada Morero can be the next mayor of the city once again.

“Our mayoral candidate, which was elected as a mayor, was our regional chairperson Dada Morero.

“Unfortunately his election was challenged in court, we lost that case in court [and] when we came back in January the conditions were different.”

Gwamanda expected to resign

The ANC Joburg secretary explained that Gwamanda, who is a councillor from Al-Jama-ah, understood that he was placed in the mayoral position as a compromise candidate between coalition partners in the government of local unity (GLU).

“The EFF [Economic Freedom Fighters] was not willing to support a mayor of the ANC because they wanted a mayor in Ekurhuleni, while they were not a majority and the compromise was to say let the two municipalities have a minority mayor,” he said.

The current change in leadership in Johannesburg is as a result of a deal between ActionSA and the ANC.

One of the demands ActionSA had made to work with the ANC in Johannesburg was the removal of the current mayor – including the cancelation of a proposed electricity surcharge, which has caused public outrage.

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