Joburg mayor resigns
After weeks of mounting pressure, Johannesburg mayor Kabelo Gwamanda has resigned after serving a year and four months in the seat.
In a statement released on 13 August, Gwamanda said he had submitted his resignation to the council speaker, Margaret Arnolds.
The resignation will be effective from a date to be determined by the council speaker, after which a new executive mayor will be elected by council.
Gwamanda was the ninth mayor of the country’s economic powerhouse since the 2016 local government election—and the fifth since 2021.
“As the youngest mayor of Johannesburg, I am humbled by the opportunity to have led this City and to have stabilised it financially and administratively following the collapse of the multiparty coalition government,” said Gwamanda, adding that he would “continue to serve the people of Johannesburg as a councillor.”
His resignation follows mounting pressure from those within his coalition, opposition parties, and civil society.
For over a year, the City of Johannesburg—which has a highly fragmented council—has been led by a coalition comprising the ANC, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), Patriotic Alliance (PA), and other smaller parties.
The appointment of Gwamanda, a member of the Al Jama-ah party, which has only three seats in the council, was a compromise between the ANC and the EFF after the parties could not agree on who would lead the City.
The ANC holds the most seats, with 91 councillors, the DA has 71 seats, and ActionSA has 44 seats, making it the third-biggest party in the Johannesburg Council. The EFF is the fourth-biggest Johannesburg party, with 29 seats.
Most recently, the Johannesburg Crisis Alliance, made up of numerous civil society organisations, demanded Gwamanda’s resignation, citing “inadequate leadership amidst a worsening governance crisis” in the country’s economic hub.
This put the ANC, who had once been avid backers of Gwamanda, in an awkward situation.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said on 4 August that the failure of governance in metros like Johannesburg significantly contributed to his ANC’s steep electoral decline in the 29 May national and provincial elections.
This has prompted the party to look at alternatives for a ‘stable government.
With local government elections just over two years away, the ANC is itching to get back into the mayoral seat.
The ANC in Joburg has been engaging with parties on the opposition benches, including ActionSA, to support it in regaining control of the council.
ActionSA agreed, on condition that (among others) Gwamanda is shown the door.
Al Jama-ah has long slammed the pressure from the ANC.
Al Jama-Ah leader Genief Hendricks said that he agrees in principle with the ANC’s proposal that the party with the most seats should govern Joburg and decide on the mayor and the composition of the executive committee.
However, he noted that the ANC was unable to present a candidate that had the support of all nine members of the coalition of smaller parties, which led to the election of two consecutive Al Jama-ah mayors (Thapelo Amad resigned ahead of Gwamanda’s appointment).
However, mounting pressure from his once firmest supporters has seen Gwamanda throw in the towel.
“My story is one I am hopeful will continue to inspire many an African child from our city that against deprivation, isolation, social and political exclusion and with the absence of friends and peers in the corporate and media hierarchy, one can live and rise on the noble cause of changing the conditions of the poor,” said Gwamanda.
The ANC’s regional chairperson and finance MMC Dada Morero is poised to take over the reins.
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