The Johannesburg metro is on a stalemate with the DA, EFF and the ANC planning to each nominate its own mayoral candidate to take over the reins from Herman Mashaba.
This comes after EFF leader Julius Malema said at a media conference in Johannesburg on Thursday that the red beret wants their candidate at the helm of Johannesburg.
The new mayor will be elected at a council meeting on November 28.
He said the EFF could work with the ANC and the DA in the Tshwane metro, provided they support their mayoral candidate next week in the Johannesburg metro.
“We will speak on condition that they support the EFF candidate. We are ready to govern Johannesburg. Anyone who wants our support, we’re ready to listen to who takes Johannesburg and who takes Tshwane, ”Malema said.
“Whoever supports the EFF in Johannesburg, we will be able to support the same party in Tshwane. So, we’re going to rule now, we’re not playing. That is the only condition we have. If it is the ANC, then so be it, if it is the DA, then so be it. “
This comes after the DA proposed Johannesburg mayoral committee member Funzela Ngobeni as the party’s mayoral candidate in Mashaba’s place earlier this week.
Since the 2016 local government election, the DA and the EFF have worked together, which has led them – in most cases – to vote in favor of each other on a vote-by-vote basis.
However, relations soured when the EFF turned its back on former Nelson Mandela Bay mayor, Athol Trollip, which led to the termination of his mayoral term in 2018.
The Johannesburg metro has 270 seats and the DA likes 104, the ANC 121 and the EFF 30.
The candidate must get 136 votes to hold the mayor’s post and in the past the EFF had the decisive vote over who controls the city.
DA national spokeswoman Solly Malatsi said talks between the EFF and the DA about the Tshwane mayorship “are still going on”, but the party is not giving a damn about its mayoral candidate for the Johannesburg metro.
“We are in the process of finding a successor (for Mashaba) and as things look now, it will be councilor Funzela. As far as the comments on Tshwane are concerned, talks with our coalition partners, including the EFF, continue, ”Malatsi said.
