In September 2025, ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula, worked very hard trying to explain President Cyril Ramaphosa’s compliment to the DA that it runs the best municipalities. Mbalula worked so hard trying to find an ANC municipality which could prove that the ANC can run great municipalities too. With significant effort, he found Ekurhuleni and enthusiastically pointed to it as the “best run municipality” in the country.
This view most likely stems from the three consecutive clean audits Ekurhuleni received between 2020 and 2022 under mayor China Dodovu. Dodovu would ride on the glory of this narrative just before the city regressed to an unqualified audit with findings in 2023. The narrative created during this rare time became so powerful that Mbalula still relied on it as he tried to defend Ramaphosa against his unimpressed ANC comrades.
Who else would emerge as the engine of the clean audits but our own Dr Imogen Mashazi. In her abrasive, arrogant and dismissive appearance before the Madlanga Commission, Mashazi mentioned this period with pride. I suppose in a country where clean audit outcomes are a rare thing, the mention of Ekurhuleni and Cape Town as the only metros to receive clean audit outcomes at the time was a significant achievement.
Read Full Article on Daily Dispatch
[paywall]
However, the picture emerging out of the Madlanga Commission paints anything but a rosy picture of Ekurhuleni. Mashazi’s involvement in the appointment of the “colourful” Julius Mkhwanazi as well as her continued leadership of this man paints a picture that requires serious criminal investigations. The fitting of blue lights on private security vehicles, the cosy relationships between the Ekurhuleni metropolitan police department (EMPD) and alleged underworld figures such as Vusumuzi Matlala under Mkhwanazi paint a disturbing picture.
[/paywall]
