ANC in pole position to retake mayorship of Joburg

Insiders party to the horse trading currently occurring among city councillors have confirmed to The Citizen that the ANC appears to have done enough to retake control of the City of Johannesburg after losing the mayorship in 2016.

However, much can still happen before the vote is taken in council tomorrow.

The city has been governed in a coalition for the past three years by Herman Mashaba, who leaves office at the end of today after resigning from the DA last month.

The ANC is yet to name who its candidate will be, but has submitted three names internally and plans to announce its candidate once the party’s national officials have overseen the process for a suitable candidate.

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The Patriotic Alliance (PA) has already confirmed to The Citizen that their councillor, Lloyd Phillips, will be voting for whoever the ANC’s candidate will be. Party president Gayton McKenzie said they believed the ANC would be the better governance option until the next local government elections in 2021.

Earlier it was speculated that the ANC could elect to support an IFP mayor, with talks between the party and the IFP ongoing. However, the momentum now appears to have shifted in the ANC’s favour, according to party sources.

In Johannesburg, the ANC has the most seats (121) and, with the help of the IFP’s five seats and its partners in council – the AIC (4), PA (1) and Aljama (1) – the DA (104) is likely to lose its hold over the city, regardless of which party ultimately gets to call its councillor the mayor.

The EFF, with 30 seats, announced that it would nominate Musa Novela for the top position. Assuming that all its councillors vote for Novela, it’s highly unlikely that the ANC will not emerge victorious in the event that they choose not to install the IFP’s Bonginkosi Dlamini.

The DA announced Funzela Ngobeni as its nominee.

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