Johannesburg - All 269 councillors of the City of Joburg have voted for Jolidee Matongo as the new executive mayor.
Those who voted for Matongo included the DA, the main opposition party in the council. In the past, the DA, led by councillor Leah Knott, had nominated its own candidates.
In his acceptance speech, Matongo thanked the councillors for setting aside their “political bickering”, saying it was a demonstration that all councillors were gearing towards serving the interests of the people of Joburg.
“Ours is to serve our people. We will make a statement during the next council meeting. We have to put up a team. We are going to review and present it to the council. Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity,” Matongo said.
While he promised to announce his team during the next council meeting, his party, the ANC, has announced that it would continue its relations with its coalition parties.
The ANC is involved in a government of local unity with Cope, the IFP, Al Jamah, the UDM and the AIC. During mayor Geoff Makhubo’s tenure some of the partners occupied senior positions in the executive.
ANC Joburg regional secretary Dada Morero announced that his party would continue with that relationship. He made the commitment before the special council meeting on Tuesday to fill the post of the executive mayor which was left vacant after Makhubo’s untimely passing.
Morero said the ANC continued to enjoy good working relations with coalition partners in the government of local unity.
He said thee party relations were based on certain agreed principles that it would remain committed to.
Political Bureau