‘Keen’ Chikane officially joins the ANC’s Joburg campaign push

The ANC in Johannesburg has effectively poured cold water on the rumours that ANC veteran Reverend Frank Chikane had withdrawn from the mayoral candidacy process after releasing images of a meeting with him.

In the photos, Chikane is seen meeting with ANC office bearers, including chairperson Loyiso Masuku, who along with Chikane, is among the three contenders for the ANC mayoral candidature.

ANC Johannesburg secretary Sasabona Manganye told the Sunday Times that the meeting was held to formally welcome Chikane to the region’s election campaign machinery ahead of the November local polls.

Chikane, Masuku and Dada Morero were last week introduced as the three people vying for the job of official ANC mayoral candidate for Johannesburg in an event that was addressed by party president Cyril Ramaphosa.

The event, initially meant to announce single mayoral candidates, was changed at the 11th hour and ended up merely being an announcement of the people who were interviewed for the position.

At that announcement, all the candidates were told to hit the ground running by joining election campaigns in their prospective municipalities in a process that would effectively determine whether they are a good fit to become mayors.

“Remember the NOBs [national office bearers] have issued a directive for all candidates to join the election campaign so that the campaign is not centred around one person who is not a final candidate,” said Manganye.

“So we were doing a meet and greet with Reverend Chikane to welcome him to our campaign given the fact that the mayor [Morero], by virtue of being the mayor already is in the campaign, the regional chair [Masuku], by virtue of being the political head is also in the campaign. But because the Reverend is leading nationally, he was not necessarily focusing just on Joburg. So now that he’s one of the applicants who were interviewed, we are integrating him into the campaign.”

Manganye said Chikane had expressed eagerness to be part of the campaign.

“It was a great meeting with a veteran movement leader who is keen to be supporting the organisation going into the 2026 local government election and all of us in the leadership welcomed his gesture to meet us and also for his commitment to continue to work for his organisation,” said Manganye.

Asked whether he foresees divisions during the campaign among the three contestants vying for the job, Manganye said that would be futile on their part as the decision to have three of them in the campaign was taken above their pay grades.

“The decision is not theirs. Whether he gets involved or doesn’t get involved, at the end of the day it’s a decision, and they appreciate that it’s not their process, it’s not their decision, that there is a structure called the national office bearers which has been empowered to take those decisions,” he said.

“So whatever views they hold are immaterial, they can’t change the fact that there are those that are empowered to make final determination.”

He said the ANC officials, dubbed the Top Seven, took a decision to have a joint campaign and that all they can do now is put that directive into action.

“We are actioning the directive from national which gave a line of march to all candidates to go to the ground and campaign, so we are welcoming that directive and practicalising it,” said Manganye.