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ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba has officially announced his intention to run for mayor of Johannesburg again.

Herman Mashaba was mayor of the city, representing the DA, between 2016 and 2019, and there have been calls for him to return

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While Mashaba previously told The Citizen that he could not confirm whether he would throw his name in the ring for the position ahead of the local government elections this year, he made it official on Saturday.

WATCH: ActionSA members celebrate the announcement of Mashaba as ActionSA’s mayoral candidate

“I stand before you today, in a boxing ring, because that is exactly what this moment is about.

“Johannesburg is in a fight for its future. I am stepping back into the ring to take back our city. Not for spectacle, not for drama, but because this city needs a fighter who knows what it takes to win.”

He said the fight is against corruption, incompetence, lawlessness, and collapse.

“It is a fight to fix our city of Johannesburg”.

He said his campaign would be one of action and delivery.

“For South Africa to work, Johannesburg has to work.”

He said that water issues, road damage, broken infrastructure, and leaking sewerage were just some of the daily struggles in Johannesburg.

“The inner city has been overrun by criminal syndicates. While residents suffer, what do they receive in return? Recycled excuses, endless political musical chairs, and a constant fight for positions and power.

“The Johannesburg collapse is not coincidental. It is a direct result of seeping corruption, blatant incompetence, failed politicians who care only about their self-interests, not residents.”

He said the city was not broken beyond repair, but needed action.

ActionSA’s Johannesburg mayoral candidate Herman Mashaba. Picture: Nigel Sibanda/ The Citizen

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Who will he go up against

The DA has already announced its Federal Council chair, Helen Zille, as its choice for mayor.

She told supporters that the city had become the country’s “most devastating example of what bad government can do to great people”.

“Johannesburg was the place to be. Now, just over 30 years later, many of its own residents see it as a place to flee.

“You feel it with every pothole on Louis Botha Avenue or the Golden Highway. You smell it when you walk down Pritchard Street in the CBD, and you see it when you open your tap in Lenasia or Soweto, and no water comes out.

“Your heart sinks when you think of the hijacked buildings of Hillbrow and Berea, where I once lived in dignity but where families now live in danger. And you sense it in the fear of suburbs where people hunker down behind high walls and razor wire.”

She said her mayoral campaign will focus on ensuring a city administration that employs capable professionals based on merit, not connections.

ALSO READ: Helen Zille to run for Joburg mayor as DA vows to ‘wrestle city back’

What about the ANC?

ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said last year that the ANC is not ready to announce its mayoral candidate for Johannesburg, with current Joburg mayor Dada Morero and the party’s Johannesburg chairperson, Loyiso Masuku, not guaranteed to be selected.

“Public representatives will come next year when we conclude our list process.

“We do not run our election campaign based on personalities. We run the election campaign based on what the ANC has done for the people, and we account to the people on what the party has done,” he added.

Additional reporting by Hein Kaiser

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