Without a mayor, here’s what comes next for the City of Johannesburg

The City of Johannesburg is currently without a mayor, the vote for a replacement has been postponed, and legal action against that decision will not be taken. Here’s what comes next for Johannesburg. 

Since the resignation of Johannesburg Mayor, Herman Mashaba, it could appear as though things have spun out of control. It has no doubt been of great importance to fill Mashaba’s role and so with that, came the rat race between the African National Congress (ANC), the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), for their candidate to be chosen.  

The DA, in the interim, has placed Abel Tau in charge of all mayoral duties while the council headed into a vote to elect Mashaba’s successor earlier this week. Before a winner could be announced, the vote was postponed by another week.

Here’s why the vote was postponed 

The DA was likely to lose two major metros in Gauteng, as the numbers were stacked against them. Without the EFF backing in 2016, the DA looked set to concede the driving seat to the ANC, who have a larger number of representatives in the council. However, there were issues with the votes. 

The speaker claimed he wanted a “second legal opinion” on how to count the votes and it will now take place on either Wednesday 4 December or Thursday 5 December 2019. 

ANC decides against legal action

According to The Citizen, the ANC was ready and able to take legal action after the speaker postponed the City of Johannesburg council meeting vote on Thursday 29 November 2019. However, since then, the party has received legal advice, cautioning it against going to court to challenge the decision, fearing a court case might drag it out even further.

Here’s the candidates for Johannesburg Mayor 

• DA: Funzela Ngobeni – Touted as “Mashaba 2.0”, the Finance MMC and Regional Chairman has the experience.
• EFF: Musi Novela – Served as the party’s Johannesburg leader for the last six years, and holds two diplomas.
• ANC: Geoff Makhubo – The former treasurer of Johannesburg is the party’s front-runner.

How many votes does a party need to win the Johannesburg Mayor race?

We’re playing for a total of 270 seats. It will come down to a majority vote, so whoever can secure 136 votes or more, will take control of the metro. 

The way forward 

For now, 269 councillors are expected to return and elect a mayor next week, failing which the municipality which serves South Africa’s economic hub could be placed under administration.