The new speaker of the City of Johannesburg, Nobuhle Mthembu, went from being ActionSA branch chair to councillor and then to her new position, all in three years.
Mthembu was elected speaker after her party entered into a working relationship with the ANC.
Formerly ActionSA’s caucus leader, she was elected as part of the newly configured Johannesburg government of local unity (GLU), which includes the ANC, EFF, PA, IFP, minority parties and Herman Mashaba’s ActionSA. The group cemented its alliance by voting together to install the ANC's Dada Morero as mayor last week.
At 37, Mthembu is not only the youngest to occupy the role but is the first from her party to do so.
In an interview with the Sunday Times this week, Mthembu vowed to prioritise skills development and education among councillors to improve ailing municipal governance.
We need to capacitate ourselves as councillors. We are falling short.
— Nobuhle Mthembu, City of Johannesburg speaker
“We need to capacitate ourselves as councillors. We are falling short. Let's take councillors to school. We expect so much from councillors and yet we are not capacitating them from a skills and education point of view. Why should we leave councillors as they are and expect them to excel in their roles if we are not capacitating them?” she said.
“Being a councillor means a lot of reading, and some councillors need help to enhance what they already know. Some councillors are elderly and assisting them with technology will go a long way. Councillors need to understand how municipalities function above and beyond being a politician.
“We’ve seen the impact of education and skills development training and how that translates to how their performance increases. They don’t all have to be educational qualifications. We can offer skills development programmes.”
With a background in finance and a BCom degree, Mthembu believed she would end up as a chartered accountant, but retrenchment opened her to different possibilities.
“I come from a finance background. I knew nothing about governance. I did not think I would ever enter the political sphere. In that space, where I was going through tough times, I got into NGOs and volunteering. A few months down the line, Herman Mashaba started a people’s dialogue where we would discuss the state of affairs in our communities, the country and possible solutions, and to be part of the change. I got drawn into that. I dedicated my time and by the time he started a political party, I was active in my community.
“My political party believes in grooming future leaders and they’ve given me a lot of opportunities. There were instances where I’ve been scared of taking a certain role, but you find they will take me into their confidence, offer me all the support I need and reassure me it is OK to make mistakes. They know the goal is to change the lives of the residents of this city and to leave an impact.
“We know what our president [Mashaba] achieved when he was mayor, but we want to showcase that he has a caucus in council that is capable of doing the same. Having a strong support team helps with the success of any individual.”
As the third-largest party in council, with 44 seats, Mthembu said ActionSA's decision to join the ANC-led coalition was easy. It decided to put party differences aside and put residents first.
Mashaba had vowed to never work with a “corrupt ANC” and had always preferred the DA as an ally, a relationship which fell through after the party's poor showing at the May polls and the collapse of the multiparty charter that aimed to unseat the ANC.
“It was easy for us to step in, put our political differences aside, put the municipality first and see if something could be done to save the city. Johannesburg at the time was a hung municipality. It was not moving forward.
“We’ve had four or five mayors since 2021. That is a lot of instability. If political parties want to play political games, that is quite foolish. At the end of the day it is the residents who suffer.”
Mthembu poured cold water over fears the party will be silenced due to its new romance with the governing coalition, saying they will continue to champion critical issues that affect residents, such as the controversial R200 electricity surcharge.
“This time we will criticise and table solutions. If there is something they are not doing right, we will call them out. We are in the legislature to hold them [the GLU] accountable. We cannot be hiding anything. We will collaborate [and] vote together on an issue-by-issue basis.
“Maladministration and corruption are things we speak out against. We will not conceal anything because we are in a partnership with others. We will remain an activist caucus.”
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