(Bloomberg) -- The African National Congress, South Africa’s biggest political party, reclaimed the mayorship of Johannesburg, marking the 10th time the post has changed hands since 2016.
Dada Morero, who served for 25 days as mayor in 2022, was reelected to the position by 189 of the 259 council members who attended a sitting on Friday. He replaces Kabelo Gwamanda, a member of the Al-Jama-ah party which holds just three seats in the legislature, and whose appointment was backed by the ANC.
A city of about 5 million people, Johannesburg has been dogged by political upheaval since 2016 municipal election failed to produce an outright winner, and council services have deteriorated as a result. A failure to maintain key infrastructure has led to frequent electricity blackouts and water outages, while potholes are left unattended for months.
ActionSA, a small opposition party led Herman Mashaba, himself a former Johannesburg mayor, backed Morero’s appointment in exchange for being allocated the speaker’s position in the council. The shakeup could have a ripple effect in other urban centers where the ANC has struck power-sharing deals with smaller rivals.
The ANC lost its outright parliamentary majority in May 29 elections and entered into a national coalition with the Democratic Alliance, the second-largest party, and eight smaller rivals. But ANC and DA officials in the central Gauteng province, which includes Johannesburg, failed to clinch a power-sharing deal that would have filtered down to municipal level, resulting in prolonged instability.
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