Government

Mashaba vs Zille showdown in South Africa’s richest city

Staff Writer

 ·21 Feb 2026

Action SA has announced that its party leader, Herman Mashaba, will stand as its mayoral candidate in Joburg for the coming local elections.

The party announced Mashaba as its candidate on Saturday, 21 February, after shortlisting four candidates the week prior.

Mashaba is campaigning on the slogan of “tested and trusted”, referring to his previous experience in the mayoral seat under the Democratic Alliance (DA) between 2016 and 2019.

He will be going up against a heavyweight in his former party, DA federal chairperson Helen Zille, who is making a big push in the city, aiming for a majority mandate to turn its fortunes around.

Other major parties, like the ANC and EFF, have not yet announced their mayoral candidates for the city. The Patriotic Alliance has put Kenny Kunene forward as its candidate.

Joburg has experienced a revolving door of mayors since 2016, where coalition politics have failed, and officials have frequently chosen political power and horsetrading over residents.

The city saw relatively stable leadership between 2000 and 2016, where the ANC majority appointed former NCOP chair, Amos Masondo, and the current DTIC minister, Parks Tau, as mayor during those years.

However, following the loss of its majority in the 2016 municipal elections, the ANC was supplanted by then-DA member Herman Mashaba as mayor, who governed on a shaky minority coalition supported by the EFF.

10 Mayors in 10 years

Mashaba served as the city’s mayor between 2016 and 2019. He resigned from the position in October 2019, citing differences with DA leadership. He went on to form his own political party, Action SA.

With Mashaba out, the EFF fielded its own candidate for mayor, leaving the majority vote going to the ANC’s Geoff Makhubo, who led the city from late 2019 to 2021.

Makhubo had taken the mayoral seat under a cloud, accused of corruption and named in the Zondo Commission. His tenure was cut short by his death in 2021 due to complications related to COVID-19.

The top seat in the council was then taken up by the ANC’s Jolidee Matongo, who was elected unopposed in August 2021. However, his tenure, too, was cut short by tragedy, dying in an accident a month later.

Following Matongo’s death, the mayoral seat was again filled by another ANC candidate, Mpho Moerane, in another short-lived stint. Moerane was mayor for one month, until the 2021 municipal elections.

Following the 2021 elections, coalition politics again continued to shake stability in the city.

A fresh DA-led coalition, including Mashaba’s Action SA and smaller parties, managed to elect the DA’s Mpho Phalatse to the mayoral seat. Phalatse would hold the position for less than a year.

The coalition included the DA, Action SA, IFP, Freedom Front Plus, COPE, ACDP, Gayton McKenzie’s PA, ATM, APC and the UIM.

In late 2022, the coalition fell apart as smaller parties, led by the PA and COPE, turned on the DA and joined the ANC, with Phalatse booted by November.

Phalatse was replaced by the ANC’s Morero, but he too was short-lived. After the courts ruled against the council for the manner in which Phalatse was removed, she was reinstated, and Morero was gone.

Three months later, however, Phalatse was out again.

In January 2023, a new coalition led by the ANC elected minority party Al Jama-ah’s Thapelo Amad as mayor, with the larger ANC taking a back seat.

As had become the norm at this point, Amad’s time as mayor lasted for four months, and by April 2023, he was replaced by another councillor from his party, Kabelo Gwamanda.

Gwamanda was the only mayor in three years to last more than a year, serving as the city’s head from May 2023 to August 2024.

His leadership came under sharp criticism from opposition councillors, and a lack of action as the city collapsed around residents led the ANC to put pressure on the mayor to resign.

Gwamanda resigned in August 2024, with Morero once again stepping in to replace him, where has faced immense pressure from residents and the city council.

Joburg’s 10 mayors in 10 years