It’s a first: ANC top brass to interview three Joburg mayoral candidates

The three ANC mayoral candidates for the City of Johannesburg will be the first to be subjected to a new rule, whereby prospective metro mayors are interviewed by the party’s powerful top six.

The ANC in Gauteng has put forward the names of Jolidee Matongo, Salphina Mulaudzi and Mpho Moerane after their PEC meeting, which agreed to have one of them as the next Johannesburg mayor.

All three enjoy the support of a powerful faction in the province, which includes ANC regional secretary Dada Morero and provincial secretary Jacob Khawe.

Khawe confirmed on Wednesday that he met with ANC officials, to hand over a report on the three, after which an interview process would begin.

The new rules for electing metro mayors came into effect earlier this year, after president Cyril Ramaphosa told the national executive committee about the need to professionalise local government.

The Sunday Times reported last month that Ramaphosa had told his comrades in the NEC that the ANC should consider introducing a process whereby the NEC or national working committee interviews mayoral candidates once a list of three candidates per post has been submitted by the lower structures.

“Usually, we just go through the process as a formality. In the end, the priority list could yield people who are not appropriate. We should go through a proper interviewing process, where we can identify strengths and weaknesses,” said Ramaphosa at the time.

The city finds itself without a mayor after the untimely death of Geoff Makhubo last month.

This has left the city, which is ruled by a coalition led by the ANC, in limbo, with other coalition partners not sure whether a new mayor will continue with the same councillors on their mayoral committee.

The three names were accepted by the Gauteng provincial leadership after they were nominated by the regional executive on Monday.

Matongo, who is the finance MMC, is said to be the front runner to take the mayoral chain, as the party in the province, according to well-placed sources, initially wanted to forward only his name to the national leadership 

A source in the ANC Gauteng PEC said they agreed with the interview process as it was proper “management of democracy and assurance of quality”.

Gauteng has always been used as a guinea pig when ANC introduces new policies and it is the same this time around as the party starts the process of interviewing mayoral candidates.