With Herman Mashaba resigning abruptly as Johannesburg mayor in mid-November the position was quickly filled. The votes were to be casted by fellow councilors at a scheduled council-sitting on Wednesday at the Council Chambers in Braamfontein.
These formal sittings can go on for the whole day so attendees need to brace themselves for 10-20 minute breaks. Everybody was itching to see who the next mayor would be as EFF caucus leader Musa Novela went up against ANC regional chair Geoffrey Makhubo and finance MMC Funzela Ngobeni, but can the voting process be concise.
“Out of 269 councilors we have 136 today in the chamber meaning if a candidate gets more votes than 136 then they have won. That makes 50% plus one of the majority votes”, said Speaker of Council Vasco Da Gama as he explained the voting process.
In the end the ANC emerged victorious as Geoffrey Makhubo won the election race but as expected not everyone was happy. The EFF was vocal about their disappointment in the results and stated that Johannesburg was back in the hands of looters and that the new mayor shouldn’t be trusted.
