EFF announces Musa Novela as its candidate for Johannesburg mayor

In a statement on Tuesday, the EFF said they would nominate Musa Novela, their chairperson in Johannesburg, as their candidate to replace Herman Mashaba as the mayor of Johannesburg.

The party said they were now ready to assume the responsibilities that came with administrative power and that they had experience of government “at all levels” and understood its “inner workings”.

Novela is the EFF’s caucus leader in the city and holds a higher certificate in local governance from the University of Johannesburg and has a chemistry diploma.

The EFF, in fielding its own mayoral candidate, will have to hope for support from either the currently governing DA or opposition ANC, which has more seats than anyone else in the hung council.

All three parties are interested in the hot seat, to be vacated by Mashaba, who is expected to officially leave office on Thursday.

If the EFF loses the race, it will have to support a candidate from either party to form a new coalition government.

But if that happens, EFF leader Julius Malema and his youthful party face public criticism for backtracking on their boldly stated undertaking not to vote with either party in the metros, according to analyst Dr Ralph Mathekga.

The EFF might choose a side, hoping to get a share of the executive seats from the winning party as a reward, added Mathekga.

If the Red Berets decide to abstain, the ANC will most likely reclaim the metro from the DA.

There was a possibility the ANC could decide not to contest the mayoral post in favour of the EFF – as it did with the United Democratic Movement (UDM) in Nelson Mandela Bay metro, said Mathekga.

The City of Joburg has been run by a coalition comprising the DA, EFF, Congress of the People, Inkatha Freedom Party, African Christian Democratic Party and the Freedom Front Plus since the 2016 election.

The DA’s candidate is Funzela “Funzi” Ngobeni, the current MMC for finance.

Some within the ANC have touted the name of the party’s Greater Johannesburg regional chairperson and former MMC for finance Geoff Makhubo.

In terms of the Municipal Structures Act, when three candidates contest and it results in a run-off election, the council should have successive rounds of voting.

For the two rounds, the candidate with the least votes drops out until the winner is declared.

The DA’s James Selfe was confident the EFF candidate would lose, leaving the race between the DA and ANC candidates.

“This leaves the EFF with an important decision, whether they support the DA multiparty coalition’s candidate or the ANC, whose only intention is to reverse the progress made since 2016.”

He said the vote was critical for the future of Johannesburg as the metro should not go the Nelson Mandela Bay route, where the ANC, EFF and UDM were in a coalition.

“In Nelson Mandela Bay, communities are experiencing firsthand the damage that can be done when the EFF make the choice to sit on their hands and give the keys to the city back to the ANC,” Selfe said.

(Edited by Charles Cilliers. Background reporting, Eric Naki)

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