PRETORIA – Johannesburg has a new Executive Mayor after Jolidee Matongo was elected to lead the city unopposed during an extraordinary council meeting on Tuesday.
The City of Johannesburg has been without an Executive Mayor since Geoff Makhubo succumbed to COVID-19 complications in July.
Matongo is expected to announce the members of his mayoral committee during the next council meeting.
A special council sitting was called on Tuesday by Speaker of the Johannesburg council, the ANC’s Nonceba Molwele.
The ANC has 124 seats in the council and needed 12 votes from other parties to install Matongo as their mayoral choice – he welcomed the uncontested nomination and promised to hit the ground running as the new mayor.
The 269 councilors in the metro did not submit any other names and, as per the Municipal, Structures Act, therefore in the case that there is only one nominee that person automatically assumes the position.
Matongo’s name was the most preferred by the ANC in the province after the selection of three names, including Salphina Mulaudzi and Mpho Moerane, for mayoral candidates.
The 46-year-old is a Soweto-born former student activist. He served as the MMC for Finance under Makhubo.
He had risen through the ranks, from serving as a member of the Soweto Student Congress and the Congress of South African Students (Cosas) before moving on to serve as the regional head of Communications in the ANC for eight years.
Matongo holds various qualifications from different institutions, including a Diploma in Public Management, a Post Graduate Degree in Public Management from Unisa, a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from Milpark Business School, and is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Public Management with Mancosa.
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