Kabelo Gwamanda was on Friday elected new mayor of the City of Johannesburg after winning the election by a significant margin of 139 votes.
His closest contender Mpho Phalatse of the DA only received 68 votes, while Funzi Ngobeni of ActionSA got 59 votes. All 266 votes cast were valid.
Gwamanda hails from the Al-Jama-Ah party and was sworn in after his victory was announced. His ascension is another product of the alliance that includes the ANC, EFF, and minority parties in council.
It was the second time that the ANC-EFF alliance had given its backing to the Al-Jama-Ah party, having previously voted in favor of a motion of no confidence against Phalatse in January, leading to the appointment of Thapelo Amad as the mayor.
Amad resigned a week ago ahead of the tabling of a motion of no confidence against him.
ANC provincial chairperson Panyaza Lesufi explained that the support given to a minority party candidate is not an attempt to re-establish a coalition.
Instead, it is aimed at giving the party another chance to replace its councillor (Amad), said the Gauteng premier.
“We are replacing a mayor that resigned, we are not re-establishing or restarting the coalition. Al-Jama-Ah produced a mayor and the mayor resigned, the person to replace him will come from Al-Jama-Ah,” Lesufi said.
“The same mayoral committee will be announced immediately after council meeting, so that service to our people can resume immediately.”
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