Mashaba's economic pick for Johannesburg is a former diplomat with an unresolved dismissal fight

ActionSA has named Botsang Moiloa as its candidate to run Johannesburg’s economic development mayoral committee if Herman Mashaba takes the mayoral chain, putting a former diplomat and state agency executive in line for the portfolio that would carry the city’s investment and jobs push.

As Sunday World reported on 30 October, Moiloa served as deputy consul in Germany under Nelson Mandela’s administration and later represented South Africa in Rwanda during Thabo Mbeki’s presidency, where he helped establish the country’s diplomatic mission while working from a hotel in Kigali. He is due to vote at Narscot Manor Recreational Centre in Douglasdale, Ward 106, at about 9am on Wednesday 4 November.

The appointment is conditional. Mashaba must first secure the council support to become mayor before he can assemble an administration, and only then would Moiloa take the economic development seat. That seat sits at the centre of the city’s attempts to attract investment, support small business and widen employment in what remains South Africa’s largest economic centre.

Moiloa’s record in public service is not clean of dispute. He was dismissed from the Cross-Border Road Transport Agency in November 2022 after disciplinary proceedings involving allegations about his qualifications and undeclared business interests. He challenged the dismissal at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration, which ordered his reinstatement with backpay. The agency challenged that outcome, and earlier this month the Labour Appeal Court overturned a separate judgment that had invalidated his employment contracts and directed that the outstanding review be considered. The dismissal dispute itself has not been finally resolved.

For a Johannesburg voter, the question the record leaves open is straightforward. The man proposed to run the city’s economic development arm is still contesting the terms on which he left a provincial road transport agency, and the courts have sent the matter back rather than closed it.

Moiloa frames his move into party politics as a deliberate step after a civil service career. In comments published by Sunday World, he said the elections were deeply personal for him and that Johannesburg had enormous economic potential that was not being fully realised. He said ActionSA was the only party that could deliver, citing Mashaba’s record as mayor, and that the city needed a government that creates an environment where businesses can invest, entrepreneurs can grow and young people can access meaningful economic opportunities.

He also urged voters not to let frustration with politicians keep them from the polls, saying every election is an opportunity for citizens to exercise one of the most powerful rights they have and that if people want change they must use their vote to demand it.

The economic development mayoral committee portfolio is one of the most consequential in the city. It sits over investment promotion, business licensing and support for small enterprises, and its holder works alongside a mayoral system that has changed hands repeatedly in recent years. Business confidence in Johannesburg has been shaped less by any single committee than by the stability of the council itself, and Moiloa’s proposed role would be judged against that.

ActionSA’s campaign in Johannesburg rests heavily on Mashaba’s personal record from his earlier stint as mayor. Whether that is enough to win the council support a mayor needs is the open question of the election, and it is the question that decides whether Moiloa’s name goes onto a committee or into a list of candidates who never took office.