Mashaba déjà vu won’t rescue Johannesburg

ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba speaks after his announcement of the party’s mayoral candidate for Johannesburg in the upcoming Local Government Elections at Orlando Hall in Soweto, 21 February 2026. Picture: Nigel Sibanda/The Citizen It was not surprising when ActionSA unveiled Herman Mashaba as its Joburg mayoral candidate this past weekend. In truth, the party is inseparable from its leader: members of the selection committee report to Mashaba directly or indirectly, his family bankrolls operations, and his influence runs so deep that many argue he effectively “owns” the party.

The real question, then, is not why he was chosen, but whether his return signals genuine rescue for Joburg, or if it’s simply a manoeuvre to block DA candidate Helen Zille? For weary residents, his comeback feels less like fresh hope and more like déjà vu. When Mashaba first took office as Joburg mayor under the DA between 2016 and 2019, he arrived with bold promises: run the city like a business, fight corruption, restore basic services and inject efficiency into a bureaucracy he described as broken.

On paper, it sounded transformative. In practice, results were uneven. He did expose some corrupt contracts and launch high-profile enforcement drives, but his tenure was short-lived, crippled by fragile coalitions and political inexperience.

[paywall]

When he resigned in 2019, it was not because voters rejected him, but because alliances collapsed and political reality outstripped his ambitions. The cracks in his leadership were laid bare, proving Joburg’s systemic problems were too big for the Mashaba-approach to manage. Now, Johannesburg faces an even deeper crisis.

Water and electricity supply remain unreliable, roads are riddled with potholes, traffic lights barely function and crime is rampant. If Mashaba returns, he inherits a city far more complex and broken than the one he left. And this time, the city requires more than the “businessman mayor” approach he tried before.

[/paywall]