Leaderless Johannesburg waits as mayoral vote is delayed

Johannesburg remains without a mayor after council speaker Vasco da Gama postponed a meeting to elect a successor to outgoing mayor Herman Mashaba.

The highly anticipated contest was set to pit ANC regional chairperson Geoff Makhubo against the DA's Funzi Ngobeni and the EFF's Musa Novela.

The council will now sit on December 4. 

Speaker of council Da Gama said he and his legal advisers were confused by what constituted a majority vote.

The confusion relates to whether a majority, 50% of votes plus one, gets reduced when there are absent councillors.

Da Gama assumes the role of acting mayor until a new one is elected.

The EFF agreed to the postponement, but the ANC said it viewed the move by Da Gama as a way of giving the two parties more time to come to an agreement.

Mashaba resigned as mayor after three years, in protest against the election of Helen Zille as the DA's federal council chairperson.

The ANC's control of the metro was toppled by a DA-led coalition, supported by the EFF.

However, the coalition government collapsed after the EFF fell out of favour with the DA.

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