Newly elected Johannesburg mayor Jolidee Matongo has called for increased political cooperation among parties in the city as he was voted into the helm of the economic hub on Tuesday.
Matongo was elected unopposed during a special council meeting which was convened to fill the post that was left vacant by his predecessor Geoff Makhubo who died last month due to Covid-19 complications.
Matongo had previously served as MMC for finance under Makhubo and had widely been viewed as being groomed for the post.
Addressing councillors after his election, Matongo said addressing the socioeconomic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic as well as the impact of the recent violent riots would be among the first priorities as he takes over.
He, however, called on political parties to put their differences aside and help assist in revitalising service delivery.
“I hope that we will all pull together as political parties in the best interest of our residents because ours is to serve the people of Johannesburg and put aside our political bickering and differences,” Matongo said.
He indicated that the ANC and other coalition partners, including the IFP, AIC, Cope, Al Jamah and the UDM, would be meeting on Tuesday evening to decide who would be appointed into the ten-member team of his mayoral committee.
“We don’t have time, so we must put the team together. Tonight when we sleep, there should be the 10 members of the mayoral committee,” he said.
He indicated that while there would not be many changes to the mayoral committee that was assembled by Makhubo, there would be several changes which would be finalised with coalition partners to formally reestablish the government of local unity.
“There should not be a lot of changes because that will upset the smooth movement forward,” he said.
Council speaker Nonceba Molwele said despite the consisted pressure that had been applied by the DA for the holding of the mayoral election, including by appealing to cooperative governance MEC Lebogang Maile and threatening to call for the dissolution of the council, the municipality had been running stably under administrators and council.
“We had a council, the legislature, which was in place. We also had the city manager [Floyd Brink] who was holding the executive account in terms of service delivery, so there was no gap in terms of service delivery,” Molwele said.
The ANC in Johannesburg earlier pointed out that it had full confidence in Matongo to help run the city until next year’s election as he possessed both political and administrative experience.
Party regional secretary Dada Morero said the party was committed to keeping the city as "a world class African city" and that Matongo was best fit to lead it.
Like his late predecessor Makhubo, 46-year-old Matongo is a Soweto-born former student and youth activist.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.