An outcry of dissatisfaction has been heard all over Johannesburg (Joburg) since the recent appointment of a Zimbabwean as Mayor. Since his appointment as Mayor on Tuesday, the hashtag #WeRejectMayorof JHB has been trending on twitter.
The Mayor is being rejected despite the plans he has laid out that others have deemed excellent.
Watch Matongo outline his plans below:
The issue surrounding this rejection is that of the Mayor’s descent. The new mayor, Jolidee Matongo’s father is Zimbabwean and that seemed to spark the outcry. His father Edward Matongo moved to South Africa more than 50 years ago. The Mayor was born in Soweto in 1979.
The City of Joburg Speaker Nonceba Molwele, has finally cleared the air over Matongo’s citizenship. She said the following:
“I want to put it into perspective that the executive mayor was born and brought up in the country – in Soweto, to be precise. He has been in different structures that fought for the liberation of the citizens and the people of South Africa. He is not a migrant. He is born of a migrant. His dad was a legal migrant”
The descent backstory only seems to be a huge issue in South Africa where xenophobia is said to be rampant. In the UK, 8 members of parliament elected this year were Zimbabweans and they have been embraced by the nation based on their merit and not origins.
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