Al Jama-ah councillor Thapelo Amad elected as Joburg’s new mayor

Amad has earned the coveted mayoral chain for the country’s largest metro after he garnered 138 votes, against the 81 votes in favour of his predecessor Mpho Phalatse, and Action SA councillor Funzi Ngobeni’s 46 votes.

This comes a day after Phalatse was unseated through a motion of no confidence. 

In his acceptance speech, Amad said he was honoured to be the city's first Muslim mayor. He listed service delivery, rehabilitating the city's finances, administrative reforms, combatting fraud and corruption, and endorsing community participation as his administration's five priorities.  

"We must be. mindful of the cries of our people who, in all honesty, yearn for basic services. This will be the first priority of this administration. We will seek to make sure that the most. basic services will be extended to all corners of the city. [These] will be refuse collection, curbing potholes, water loss, and sewer spillage. If we are to be meaningful in what we say the departments and entities responsible for these services will be bound by service delivery standards and agreements for resolving these issues," he said. 

At the same time, the ANC’s Joburg caucus leader Dada Morero said the city’s coffers are in the red with only R600 million left to run the metro.

Morero said council will meet within seven days to deliberate on the R2 billion Development Bank of SA loan that had previously been tabled by the DA-led multiparty government.

The loan was rejected by council.

"We are in trouble as the city of Johannesburg, and deliberately the executive then withdrew the item on raising a loan from the DBSA so that it's not tabled at this council meeting because they knew it will go through. So, we will convene a special meeting very soon in the next seven days so we can approve the DBSA loan which will help us to close the gaps. We are now sitting at about R6 billion owing to suppliers in the City of Johannesburg," Morero explained.

Meanwhile, the Gauteng ANC leader Panyaza Lesufi has defended the move denying the loan was initially not supported to sabotage the previous administration. 

"You have a municipality that in the next two months may not even be able to pay salaries, then you go boldly in public and say 'we are not bankrupt but we want a loan', and we said to be transparent and admit where that loan will go, and tell us how you are in a position to repay that loan."

Lesufi says the terms of the loans were 'reckless'. 

"You take the R2 billion today [and] by June you must pay back the entire amount of money, and you want this coalition to support that idea?"

The new mayor, and possibly his new team of MMCs, will be sworn in on Monday morning.