Johannesburg’s member of the mayoral committee (MMC) for finance Jolidee Matongo is the front-runner to take over as the city’s mayor. (Twitter)
Johannesburg’s member of the mayoral committee (MMC) for finance Jolidee Matongo is the front-runner to take over as the city’s mayor, with the ANC likely to announce its candidate next week, reliable sources say.
ANC insiders say the race to replace Geoff Makhubo who died earlier this month from complications resulting from Covid-19, is between two regional leaders from different factions of the party, including regional deputy chair and health MMC Eunice Mgcina.
The ANC in the region will meet this week to finalise the list of candidates before taking them to the national office bearers and the provincial executive committee next week, Johannesburg ANC secretary Dada Morero told the Mail & Guardian.
“You can rest assured that there will be a candidate announced next week,” he added.
The ANC has already met with its coalition partners who have indicated that the matter needs to come to finality with urgency so as to deal with the economic downturn resulting from the debilitating Covid-19 pandemic and the recent insurrection in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng that cost the Johannesburg metro millions of rands in damages, Morero said.
Matongo is the candidate favoured by the region, according to ANC sources. They say the party has also window shopped Matongo’s name to its coalition partners in the city, who have expressed their buy-in.
Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) provincial secretary Alco Ngobese said it was important that the matter be finalised within the next two weeks. He said his party would support the ANC candidate fit for purpose, adding that there was work to be done on the ground.
He called on the ANC to pick an individual with experience in government.
“We are facing an economic crisis and we have projects as the IFP in our position as heads of human settlements in the city that we want to ensure will continue. It’s important that whoever takes over is experienced, can add value but also understands the economic crisis,” Ngobese said.
The IFP was the king-maker when Makhubo was elected as the new mayor in 2019, defecting to the ANC from a coalition it had held with the Democratic Alliance. The ANC will most likely need to keep its coalition partners happy for its candidate to be voted into power.
Ngobese said it would be foolish for the smaller coalition partners of the ANC to attempt to muscle in and call for their own candidate to take over as mayor as the ruling party had the majority in the council.
After the party agrees on a candidate, the person, who must have the expertise and the academic record to take over the position of political leader in the country’s economic hub, will undergo a vigorous interviewing process, Morero told the M&G .
The ANC is in a coalition with the IFP, Cope, the African Christian Democratic Party and Al Jama-ah in running Johannesburg. Makhubo won the mayoral race in December 2019 after Herman Mashaba, then a member of the DA, resigned from the party and stepped down.
The M&G recently reported that President Cyril Ramaphosa had proposed that the ANC arrest all talks of coalitions in the local government elections, which are set to be postponed to next year, while calling for an overhaul of how the party selects its mayoral candidates.
Addressing the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) during his political overview, Ramaphosa said the party’s experience since the emergence of coalitions in 2016 was that “coalition governments are incapable of effectively driving development, providing quality services and ensuring proper accountability”.
Ramaphosa suggested a more rigorous process of selecting mayors, saying the current approach had not produced the results the ANC needed.
He suggested that the NEC and the party’s national working committee introduce a process of interviewing mayoral candidates to identify strengths and weaknesses once a list of three candidates had been submitted.
He also suggested that the party focus on three key positions — mayor, municipal manager and chief financial officer — for each municipality the ANC governs.
Ramaphosa said another matter of concern was that two-thirds of councillors elected in 2016 were new to the job and there was a frequent turnover of senior management in councils. This had resulted in a loss of skills, experience and institutional memory, he said, adding that it was also a concern that only a third of councillors had post-matric qualifications.
“We, therefore, need to prioritise the selection of skilled and knowledgeable political leaders and senior management that is suited to the task at hand,” Ramaphosa urged his party.
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