With the 2026 local government elections approaching, the Battle for Joburg mayorship has intensified, but political commentator Yolokazi Mfuto warns that the city’s problems require far more than simplistic solutions or hopeful rhetoric.
Speaking as Johannesburg grapples with an R89.4 billion budget, R5.2 billion in unpaid Eskom debt, massive service delivery backlogs, and a revolving door of nine mayors in just eight years, Mfuto delivered a blistering assessment of the current administration.
“Current executive mayor Dada Morero is completely detached from his constituency and the people he claims to represent,” Mfuto said. “When you read and listen to him in that state of the city address, he was very oblivious to the problems that Johannesburg has. Instead, he comes up with solutions for problems that were very misdiagnosed.”
Mfuto accused Morero of antagonizing citizens who pay taxes and rates but receive no services, and of “rendering the city lawlessness.” She added: “He has not made Johannesburg the great city that everyone in South Africa claimed it to be when they left their homes and came to Johannesburg.”
Turning to opposition candidates, Mfuto took aim at ActionSA mayoral candidate and former mayor Herman Mashaba, who has fiercely pushed to dissolve entities like City Power and Johannesburg Water.
“Unfortunately, I think his views in solving the problems in South Africa as a whole tend to be very simplistic in trying to solve complex issues,” Mfuto said. “Dissolving these entities does not necessarily absolve them of the problems – they create new entities that will inherit the same issues: dilapidated infrastructure, demotivated officials, and no consequences for failing to deliver services.”
She also criticized Mashaba’s focus on immigration and hijacked buildings, arguing he “uses immigrants as a scapegoat for the problems that they themselves in government have created.”
Regarding the ANC’s unconventional step of opening mayoral nominations to non-party members, Mfuto was skeptical. “Unfortunately, I do not think that this is a genuine approach to restore public trust. The ANC itself has been very unfriendly towards people who have not been part of the party for quite some time.”
Pressed on what qualities Joburg’s next leader needs, Mfuto outlined three characteristics: a multifaceted approach to complex problems, compassionate leadership rather than antagonism, and genuine intent.
“We do not want people who have a one view of how things should be solved,” she said. “Citizens do not want a messiah. They want a leader with whom they can solve problems together.”
She concluded that beyond fixing water, sanitation, service delivery and jobs, Johannesburg must reclaim its identity as “a city where people went in for joy and to realize their potential from across all corners of South Africa.”