Johannesburg Elects New Mayor for 10th Time Since 2016

(Bloomberg) -- The African National Congress, South Africa’s biggest political party, reclaimed the mayorship of Johannesburg, marking the 10th time the post has changed hands since 2016.

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Dada Morero, who served for 25 days as mayor in 2022, was reelected to the position by 189 of the 259 council members who attended a sitting on Friday. He replaces Kabelo Gwamanda, a member of the Al-Jama-ah party which holds just three seats in the legislature, and whose appointment was backed by the ANC.

A city of about 5 million people, Johannesburg has been dogged by political upheaval since 2016 municipal election failed to produce an outright winner, and council services have deteriorated as a result. A failure to maintain key infrastructure has led to frequent electricity blackouts and water outages, while potholes are left unattended for months.

ActionSA, a small opposition party led Herman Mashaba, himself a former Johannesburg mayor, backed Morero’s appointment in exchange for being allocated the speaker’s position in the council. The shakeup could have a ripple effect in other urban centers where the ANC has struck power-sharing deals with smaller rivals.

The ANC lost its outright parliamentary majority in May 29 elections and entered into a national coalition with the Democratic Alliance, the second-largest party, and eight smaller rivals. But ANC and DA officials in the central Gauteng province, which includes Johannesburg, failed to clinch a power-sharing deal that would have filtered down to municipal level, resulting in prolonged instability.

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