Johannesburg – The ANC and its coalition partners in the City of Joburg have agreed to endorse Mpho Moerane as their mayoral candidate following the tragic passing of former mayor Jolidee Matongo in a horrific road accident.
This was revealed on Thursday in a joint meeting of the Gauteng ANC led by chairperson David Makhura and Joburg’s ANC led by regional secretary Dada Morero in the provincial legislature. Moerane was the MMC for infrastructure during the tenure of former mayor Geoff Makhubo and lately under Matongo.
Announcing the decision, Makhura said the death of Matongo left a “political vacuum in the City of Joburg” while some local residents were continuing to experience massive disruptions in electricity supply, including an intermittent shortage of water in some communities.
He said it was for these reasons that the ANC and coalition partners would nominate Moerane to become the new mayor, albeit for just a month, to allow him to set up his mayoral executive to continue to provide services to the ratepayers.
“We want to make sure that the residents of Joburg continue to receive services even if we are still grieving about the loss of Jolidee. While we are aware it's only 30 days to the elections, some of the local residents are having unstable electricity supply (and) intermittent water cuts. This needs to be dealt with by the political leadership of the City.
“The political vacuum that exists in Joburg needs to be cleared. We need a collective of a mayoral executive to attend to the housing needs of the people. There are small businesses that were severely affected by Covid-19 and the recent unrest in Gauteng and in Joburg who, too, need the assistance of the local government urgently,” Makhura said.
The City of Joburg has convened a special council meeting to elect a new mayor on Friday and, according to Morero, their coalition partners, Cope, the UDM, Al Jam Ah and the African Independent Congress (AIC) have agreed on Moerane’s nomination.
Makhura said that if Moerane was elected as mayor, his immediate priority would be to establish his mayoral committee on the same day. He added that the ANC national officials had also endorsed Moerane, so there was no need for another round of interviews.
Makhura also cleared the air on whether Moerane would continue in the same position if the ANC obtained an outright majority in the upcoming local government elections on November 1.
According to Makhura, there was no guarantee that the regional and provincial leadership of the ANC would again propose three names to the top ANC officials for a decision on a new mayor for Joburg.
Political Bureau