Johannesburg - This week Soweto-born Jolidee Matongo became the sixth democratically-elected mayor of Africa’s richest city, Joburg.
Prior to his election as mayor, the son of a Zimbabwean migrant served as Joburg’s finance MMC under his predecessor, the late Geoff Makhubo.
When South Africa became democratic in 1994, Isaac Mogase was democratically elected the first mayor of Joburg.
Of the six mayors who have been at the helm in the city, five have come from the ANC, with only one coming from the official opposition DA, that being Hammanskraal-born Herman Mashaba.
Mogase, the first post-apartheid mayor of Joburg, was an anti-apartheid activist who joined the ANC Youth League in the 1950s.
He was the mayor of the city from 1995 until 2000.
He died on Freedom Day this year.
Amos Masondo, the chairperson of the National Council of Provinces, then became the mayor of the city from 2000 to 2011.
The veteran ANC activist is a former Robben Island inmate.
From 2011, Soweto-born Parks Tau served as the mayor of the City of Joburg from 2011 to 2016.
Tau lost his mayorship in a historic defeat on August 22, 2016, to the DA’s Mashaba.
He is now the Gauteng’s economic development MMC.
Mashaba, the veteran entrepreneur, was in charge of Joburg from 2016 until 2019.
He was parachuted to the position through a coalition with the EFF.
He spectacularly resigned from the DA in 2019, and is the leader of ActionSA.
Then entered Makhubo who took the position from 2019 until his death last month from Covid-19 complications.
Before that he was the city’s finance MMC, and the ANC’s Joburg region treasurer.
The Star