Nqutu,South Africa

ActionSA and its coalition partners had chosen Funzile Ngobeni as their candidate for the position of Joburg Mayor which is up for grabs.

On Tuesday,02 May 2023,the ActionSA National Chairperson,Michael Beaumont revealed in different platforms that his party and its partners reached an agreement to nominate Ngobeni to contest the elections of Joburg Mayor.

Beaumont said ActionSA can confirm that it has been holding engagements with the IFP,the FF Plus,the ACDP and the UIM to determine the viability of rallying around a Mayoral Candidate that can stabilise governance for the benefit of all residents in Johannesburg.

These former coalition partners in the Joburg Council met after the Democratic Alliance chose to rally on its own after announcing Mpho Phalatse as its candidature for the position.

Beaumont continued,ActionSA is pleased to report that following considerable engagement,our Johannesburg Caucus Leader Funzi Ngobeni will be nominated as the candidate to be supported by these parties.We express our humble appreciation to our partners for their confidence.There have also been engagements with other parties represented in the Johannesburg council,many of whom see the merit in a coalition that is led by a party other than the ANC or the DA.

The nomination of Ngobeni would give the ActionSA and its partners an fair chance to win during the elections because their candidate is more familiar with the operations of the municipality.

Ngobeni is currently serving as the ActionSA Gauteng Provincial Chairperson and before the formation of ActionSA he served the people of Johannesburg between 2016 and 2021 under the emblem of Democratic Alliance.

In that period,he served as MMC for Finance,MMC for Development Planning and an MMC for Transport as well as the Leader of Executive Business- he also armed with an extensive experience gained in private and public sector.

It seems like the Democratic Alliance is not willing to allow other political parties to nominate a candidature that is not their representative despite its setbacks in the Joburg council under the leadership of Dr Mpho Phalatse who was removed twice as the Joburg Mayor through motions of no confidence championed by ANC and EFF.

Beaumont mentioned that yesterday,ActionSA wrote to the DA on behalf of this collective of parties and requested an urgent engagement to seek the DA's support for Ngobeni's candidature for the mayoralty in Johannesburg.The case was made for the fact that Ngobeni could achieve a majority in council with the support of DA,something that Phalatse cannot achieve(even with our collective support) because of the breakdown of relationships between the DA and other parties in council.

He continued,the DA refused the opportunity to meet responding only to persist in their unilateral nomination of Phalatse despite this only increasing the likelihood of an ANC and EFF government in Johannesburg-the stated purpose of the moonshoot pact to prevent.

ActionSA's national chairperson has hinted that his political party would whatever it takes to minimise the dominance of ANC and EFF in the metro before heading to 2024 general elections.

"ActionSA is proud to stand among parties that have proven their unequivocal commitment to providing an alternative to the ANC and EFF in Johannesburg as well as in the 2024 elections.These parties have proven that they will not shy away from this commitment and nor will we be selective in terms of when they choose to live up to it.

"Cities like Johannesburg with complex challenges cannot be fixed in the opposition benches and this is why these parties will work together today in Johannesburg and is willing to work with other parties to keep the ANC and EFF out of government",he concluded.

The Joburg Council has sat on Tuesday to elect the new mayor following the resignation of former Mayor,Thapelo Amad,early last week on Monday-24 April and he only occupied that position for few months.

Amad was dubbed as the ANC-puppet Mayor because he was elected by them after axing DA's Mayor Mpho Phalatse in a motion of no confidence.