Mbalula shuts down Masuku-for-mayor chatter: 'Chairperson doesn’t equal mayor in a city we’ve lost'
ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula has slammed the intensifying power struggle between supporters of Johannesburg’s newly elected regional chairperson, Loyiso Masuku, and those backing mayor Dada Morero, warning that this won’t help the party survive.
Masuku’s historic victory, becoming the first woman to chair the ANC’s biggest region after defeating Morero 184 to 149, has fuelled internal chatter that she should now ascend to the mayoralty.
But briefing the media on the sidelines of the party’s National General Council (NGC) Mbalula has dismissed the debate as a “destructive obsession with titles”, insisting that Joburg is a coalition-run city the ANC no longer controls.
“Being a chairperson doesn’t give you the status of mayor, especially in a city we have lost,” he said.
“Even the fact that Dada became mayor was a favour by other parties,” he added that people were fighting over a title in a government they don’t even run.
Mbalula praised Masuku as a capable leader, but said her election must translate into fixing the region not triggering another round of internal warfare.
“They had a very good conference. Now that energy must be used to win the confidence of Johannesburg residents, not to plot who must replace who,” he said.
He condemned the mayoral chatter as “short-sighted and irresponsible”, warning that the ANC cannot afford to repeat the same mistakes that forced the national leadership to dissolve both the Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal PECs.
The dramatic move, which stunned many in the party, followed sustained factional paralysis, electoral decline, and growing public distrust.
“The issue of who becomes the mayor is not a priority and it will not occupy us… Our only preoccupation is winning Johannesburg back,” he said everything else was noise.
He criticised ANC members who rush to position battles while opposition parties are already organising their 2025 election campaigns.
“We come from a successful regional conference and the first talk is: who must be the next mayor? That thinking is condemned in the strongest terms,” he said.
“The ANC must stop fighting over scraps. The real fight is to win the city back.”
Meanwhile, Morero would remain the mayor despite the talks.
kamogelo.moichela@iol.co.za
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