Читать книгу The Accidental Mayor - Michael Beaumont - Страница 9

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The end

On Monday 21 October 2019, Mayor Herman Mashaba walked into a packed press conference in the Johannesburg Metro Centre. Every media house was present. The buzz in the room quickly faded, to be replaced by the sound of camera shutters snapping away furiously.

Mashaba delivered an emotional speech, announcing his resignation from the Democratic Alliance (DA) and, consequently, the mayoralty of Johannesburg. Very few people would have known Mashaba well enough to recognise the combination of hurt, frustration and resoluteness in his words. He recounted how the party he had represented had changed, and how it had become the biggest obstacle to his work of transforming Johannesburg.

Immediately afterwards, Mashaba was joined at the podium by Mmusi Maimane, the leader of the DA. ‘You are my hero,’ Maimane said to him.

At the time of Mashaba’s announcement, his approval rating stood at almost 70 per cent and calls for him not to resign trended on social media for 24 hours straight.

As to how Mashaba got to this point, three years and two months after being elected as an unlikely mayor of Johannesburg – now therein lies the story.