Why is Joburg mayor still in his seat? Mashaba demands answers

Action SA leader Herman Mashaba said he would be meeting with the ANC to discuss progress in removing the mayor of Johannesburg and putting a new government in place.

It has been three weeks since Action SA announced its new working relationship with the ANC in the City of Johannesburg and other municipalities in Gauteng.

Despite both parties confirming the new arrangements, no announcement has been made about when the mayor of the City of Johannesburg will resign or when a new mayoral committee will be installed.

Is there a deal or not?

In an interview with The Citizen, Mashaba said the purpose of the meeting with the ANC is to confirm the agreement.

“We are waiting for the ANC to confirm if the deal is on. The delays interfere with finalising our internal matters,” he said.

Mashaba said part of the agreement with the ANC was that Action SA would get the speaker position. The ANC would keep the executive.

He said Action SA would announce their candidate for the speaker position.

“We have a candidate for speaker. We will announce the name after we find out if we would continue along these lines,” he said.

ANC must deal with Gwamanda — Mashaba

The Citizen understands that Gwamanda was asked to resign. Apparently, there are ongoing negotiations as to what would happen to his political future if he does.

Sources close to the negotiations with the ANC and their minority party partners said the ANC had offered one seat to Gwamanda’s party, Al-Jama-ah. However, it appeared that there was some contestation over this one seat.

Despite this Mashaba said Action SA had left it up to the ANC to deal with the removal of the current mayor.

“The mayoral committee belongs to the ANC and it’s up to them what they do with him,” he said.

ANC NEC discusses City leadership change

Meanwhile, the ANC’s National Executive Committee (NEC) had also discussed the political instability and governance issues in the City.

The NEC noted that there were leadership changes that were necessary. However, no one provided a clear plan for how these changes would come into effect.

The ANC in Johannesburg is currently split into two camps. One side belongs to the chairperson of the region Dada Morero and the other to Loyiso Masuku, the current MMC for Group Corporate Shard Services. This rivalry has been a stumbling block towards Morero’s road to becoming the mayor.