Earlier this morning, The City of Johannesburg held its 27th Extra-Ordinary Council Meeting in terms of Rule 16 of the standing Rule and Order of Council that was called by the Speaker of Council Cllr Nonceba Molwele “The Structures Act says, the Executive Mayor when there is a vacancy must be elected, when necessary, there is no time frame.”

Matongo was elected as the new mayor without opposition and is expected to announce members of his Mayoral Committee on Wednesday, 11 August 2021. 269 councillors in the metro did not submit any other names following the Municipal Structures Act, Mr Matongo was the only candidate that was nominated for the council election, automatically assuming the Mayoral position.

“Let me thank the African National Congress in the region, province and the national officials for the confidence they’ve shown in me but let me thank all thank all 269 councillors who have in the history of our city, decided they will not look at any other candidate by myself”. Jolidee said as he delivered his Mayoral speech. The appointment of Mr Matongo (46) as Executive Mayor of Johannesburg came after the sudden passing of Geoff Makhubo who was the city’s mayor from December 2019. He suffered Covid-19 related implications and died last month at the age of 53. Matongo promised to continue the work of the late Joburg mayor.

The special sitting was held at the City’s New Council Chambers at the Metro Centre, Matongo holds multiple qualifications from various institutions namely a diploma in public management, a post-graduate degree in public management from the University of South Africa and a post-graduate diploma in management from Milpark Business School, the new may is currently studying towards his master’s degree in public management at Mancosa.

In a media briefing the Executive Mayor outlined several concerns that himself and the committee intend on prioritizing namely land invasion, immigrants, and service delivery, “The expectation we would like to put our there to the people is that we have got more than thirty-thousand employees of the city, we have a approved a budget of R73.3 billion, we have in the past financial year experienced a under-expenditure of the money, the one thing we wanted to ensure happens in the remaining period is that the money is spent of the things it is budgeted for.”

Matongo lives with his family in Lenasia, south of Joburg, he will be the face of the ANC in the country’s economic hub in the upcoming local government elections which are yet to take place on 27 October 2021 but could possibly be postponed to February 2022.The ANC has also nominated Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula to be the next speaker of National Assembly.