ActionSA, ANC conclude Joburg deals with Nobuhle Mthembu elected speaker
Nobuhle Mthembu becomes the City of Johannesburg’s third speaker since 2023, after Colleen Makhubele and Margaret Arnolds.
ActionSA councillor Nobuhle Mthembu has officially replaced the African Independent Congress’s (AIC’s) Margaret Arnolds as speaker of the City of Johannesburg.
Mthembu (180 votes) beat the Democratic Alliance’s (DA’s) Nonhlanhla Sifumba (68 votes) to the position, who was nominated even though the DA wants the council to be dissolved and fresh elections held.
The newly elected speaker said she would work with the city’s executive to:
- Resolve the billing crisis
- Rejuvenate the inner city
- Tackle corruption and wastefulness
- Enforce city by-laws to prevent illegal trading and dumping
A triumphant ActionSA added that Mthembu would work speedily to restore governance.
“The urgent work of stabilising the City of Johannesburg, restoring good governance and effective service delivery in the province now begins. Councillor Mthembu brings much-needed experience to this position that we will use to hold the CoJ administration to account,” read a statement on X (Twitter).
Mthembu’s election to head the city’s council concludes weeks of back-and-forth deals between the ANC, ActionSA and other parties, bar the Freedom Front Plus and the DA.
Nobuhle Mthembu: Speaker steps in after backroom deals
The first of these deals was put in place last Friday when the ANC’s Dada Morero replaced Al Jama-ah Kabelo Gwamanda as mayor.
Morero then announced new members of the mayoral committee (MMCs), which included Arnolds being the new MMC for finance, Morero’s former position, while Gwamanda was given the community development portfolio.
Arnolds was Johannesburg speaker for under a year, after she replaced Colleen Makhubele on 21 November. Makhubele was removed after her then-party, Congress of the People, terminated her membership on 14 November 2023.
Mthembu is ActionSA’s caucus leader in the Johannesburg council and she was a shoo-in for the position, due to ANC (91) and ActionSA (44) having 135 of the council’s 270 seats.
The one extra needed could come from any of the parties (Economic Freedom Fighters, Patriotic Alliance, Al Jama-ah and others such as AIC) forming the so-called government of local unity.
ANC-ActionSA collaboration in the city
The ANC-ActionSA tie-up came as a surprise to many, due to the latter party’s leader Herman Mashaba previously claiming vowing to never work with the liberation party.
“The ANC, EFF and the MK [uMkhonto weSizwe Party] – those are the parties, for us as ActionSA, we will never work with those parties,” Mashaba said in June 2024.
Last month, in an about-turn, he defended the decision to work with the “criminal enterprise” ANC as the being in the interest of Gauteng residents.
“Yes, absolutely, I am really talking to the ANC to see how we can best stabilise the metros of Gauteng, because it’s really very critical,” Mashaba said on the sidelines of the Opening of Parliament in Cape Town.