Who are the Ward 67 councillor candidates for 2026?

With the 2026 local government elections approaching, Ward 67 residents can get to know the candidates vying to represent their community.

Meet the candidates, learn more about their priorities and find out what they hope to achieve if elected as ward councillor.

All candidates were invited to answer the questions. The responses published below are included here. This article will be updated as further candidates submit their responses.

The suburbs include:

Yeoville, Bellevue, Upper Killarney, Parktown East, and Upper Houghton.

Independent Ward 67 councillor candidate Nomsa Mbatha:

A. In one sentence, who are you?

I am Nomsa Mbatha, an independent candidate for Ward 67, passionate about fixing service delivery through hands-on community action.

B. What are the biggest issues facing your ward currently?

Ward 67 faces six urgent issues: crime, illegal dumping and inconsistent waste collection, water leakages, unannounced electricity outages, potholes, and illegal land occupation. All suburbs are affected to varying degrees, undermining safety, health and dignity, with densely populated areas hit hardest.

C. What practical solutions would you prioritise should you be named councillor?

• Crime: Advocate for more SAPS capacity and patrol vans, simplified reporting irrespective of immigration status, and satellite police tents in hotspots.
• Potholes and illegal settlements: Report potholes immediately regardless of size, mobilise residents for temporary patching while escalating to JRA for permanent repairs, and report illegal occupations early with consistent follow-ups to prevent entrenchment
• Water and electricity: Promote immediate reporting of leaks and outages, track repairs to completion, secure substations with padlocks and caging, demand job cards from subcontractors and report illegal tampering.
• Illegal dumping: Empower street committees to monitor dumpers, enforce stronger penalties, audit bins, cut red tape for delivery, and run multilingual education campaigns.

D. What is one misconception about you or your party that you would clarify?

As an independent candidate, I have no party. A common misconception is that I prioritise high-density areas. I do not. I prioritise by reporting sequence and urgency. My principle is: People before politics; every street in Ward 67 matters equally.

E. Should your party’s candidate be named mayor, what issues should they address first?

As an independent, my focus is Johannesburg.

Any mayor must prioritise cleaning the inner city to attract private investment, convert hijacked buildings into safe low-income housing, insource service delivery staff, respond promptly to faults, and enforce consequences for non-performance. A functional city starts with accountability.

Also read: Electoral stakeholders target online disinformation ahead of local government elections

ANC Ward 67 councillor candidate David Nthako

In one sentence, who are you?
I am a community-focused Ward 67 councillor, political organiser and final-year BA Politics, Philosophy and Economics student committed to accountable governance, service delivery and practical solutions.

What are the biggest issues facing your ward currently?
The major challenges are unreliable electricity and water supply, deteriorating roads and infrastructure, dysfunctional street lighting, illegal connections, illegal dumping, hijacked properties and inadequate maintenance of public spaces.

What practical solutions would you prioritise should you be named councillor of your ward?
I would strengthen ward-based service-delivery monitoring, with measurable targets for water, electricity, roads, streetlights, waste removal and parks. I would also strengthen community service-delivery forums, improve escalation mechanisms and prioritise preventative infrastructure maintenance.

What is one misconception about you or your party that you would clarify?
There is a misconception that councillors personally implement services, that when electricity is off or there is a pothole, the councillor simply makes a call and fixes it.

Our role is to make policy, formulate by-laws and the IDP, participate in the budget process and exercise oversight. Implementation is the responsibility of the municipal administration. When administration fails to implement policy, the councillor or political party is often blamed, even where operational responsibility lies elsewhere.

Should your party’s candidate be named mayor, what issues should they address first?
The immediate priorities should be financial sustainability, reliable basic services, infrastructure maintenance, revenue collection, consequence management and restoring public confidence through visible improvements at ward level.

Other candidates are encouraged to email the editor, Ashtyn Mackenzie, at ashtynm@caxton.co.za.