Maimane trends as social media reacts to Makhubo's election as Johannesburg mayor
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Image: Twitter/Mmusi Maimane
The election of the ANC's Geoff Makhubo as the new mayor of Johannesburg, and the DA's loss of the metro, has seen Mmusi Maimane, the party's former leader, dominate social media conversation.
The DA and EFF on Wednesday lost the country's biggest metro to the ruling party, which was last in charge before the 2016 elections. This came after the resignation of Herman Mashaba as mayor. He cited tensions within the DA as his reason for stepping down.
The DA's latest loss has caused many to question whether its current leadership will be invited to resign, as Maimane did after the party's poor performance in the May elections.
Among those who suggested Maimane step down in the interests of the party were former leader Tony Leon and political strategist Ryan Coetzee. The calls came amid reports that Maimane had been involved with controversial fraud-accused Steinhoff boss Markus Jooste, Sunday Times reported.
Here's a glimpse of what tweeps had to say:
Mmusi Maimane lost 1.5% of vote and got invited to resign. The ‘new’ DA leadership have lost an entire Metro in one day - when shall we expect the resignations for this mess? #JoburgCouncil
— Simon Grindrod (@SimonPGrindrod) December 4, 2019
John u & the rest of the DA leadership put him there. through your squabbling, power grabs & putting Zille back in leadership, ignoring her devisive behavior. U need to take responsibility & accountability. U pushed out Herman & Mmusi. what did u think would happen?
— @cakeordeath574 (@cakeordeath574) December 5, 2019
Under the the so called mmusi Maimane's weak leadership the DA once ran the cities of Joburg, tshwane and Nelson Mandela bay but now under the strong leadership of hellen zille and John steenhuizen the DA just lost Joburg to the ANC. That's how democracy works pic.twitter.com/V9ZW8DAboq
— 👑given 🇿🇦 👑 (@ngomani_given) December 5, 2019
We wanna see consistency now, let see if the same DA caucus will make recomendations just like they did with Mmusi. https://t.co/JD7DB9DHFN
— Steven Moate (@Stevenmoate) December 5, 2019
@jsteenhuisen you have failed your voters. you allowed this to happen. what did you think the result of all your handling of de lille, Mmusi, Herman & Zille would result in. Squabbling for power instead of standing united. Don't blame anyone else you all did this. you failed us.
— @cakeordeath574 (@cakeordeath574) December 5, 2019
Mmusi Maimane won City of Johannesburg and Tshwane Municipality for the DA. John Steenhuizen handed JHB Municipality back to the ANC and is about to do the same in Tshwane. #BringBackMmusi #JoburgMayor #TshwaneMayor
— Thabo (@Ngoasheng247) December 5, 2019
Somebody check with Helen Zille. She removed Mmusi because he ‘lost’ votes during national elections, but Steenhuisen lost DA votes within the DA caucus 😭💔
— Naledi Chirwa (@NalediChirwa) December 4, 2019
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Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.