Herman Mashaba named ActionSA’s candidate for Johannesburg mayor in 2026 elections

ActionSA’s leader Herman Mashaba has been announced as the party’s mayoral candidate for Johannesburg ahead of the 2026 local government elections. ActionSA’s leader,Herman Mashaba,has been named the party’s mayoral candidate for the City of Johannesburg ahead of the2026 local government elections. The announcement was made at the Orlando Community Hall in Soweto on Saturday, where party leaders addressed a crowd of supporters and residents.

Mashaba, who previously served as Johannesburg’s mayor from August 2016 to November 2019, was one of five senior leaders considered for the position. IOLpreviously reported that Mashabahad indicated he would consider contesting the mayoral position if the party was unable to identify a suitable candidate. He said that if ActionSA failed to find someone with the same “qualities” as City of Tshwane Mayor Dr Nasiphi Moya and the party’s Ekurhuleni mayoral candidate,Xolani Khumalo, he would be willing to step in.

Launching his campaign, Mashaba declared that the city was “in a fight for its future” and positioned himself as the candidate ready to “take back” Johannesburg through what he called decisive action rather than rhetoric. Addressing supporters in what he described as a symbolic boxing ring, Mashaba said the moment was not about spectacle but about confronting the crisis facing the city. “Johannesburg is in a fight for its future,” he said.

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“I’m stepping back into the ring to take back my city. Not for spectacle, not for drama, because this city needs a fighter who knows what it takes to win.” He framed his campaign as a confrontation with corruption, incompetence, and lawlessness. “This is a fight against corruption, a fight against incompetence, a fight against lawlessness, a fight against decline and collapse, and it is a fight to fix our city of Johannesburg,” he said.

“We are here, fellow South Africans, to declare war,” stressing that the campaign would not be about “theory, personalities, empty commitments, or endless talking” but “a campaign of action and delivery”. Mashaba painted a bleak picture of the state of the city, saying residents were experiencing dry taps, broken street lights, crumbling roads and sewerage flowing in the streets.

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