South africa mourns newly elected johannesburg mayor Jolidee Matongo

A tragedy has struck South Africa's Johannesburg city again. Newly elected Johannesburg

Mayor, Jolidee Matongo died in car crash this past weekend hours after a door to door local

government election campaign with South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa in Soweto. 

The  46 year old had been elected as Mayor of the city on August 10th after his predecessor, Geoff Makhubo succumbed to Covid-19 complications in July. Johannesburg residents say they had

little time to get to know the Mayor.

"Unfortunately, I had no time to familiarize myself with this new mayor. However, from a far he seemed like a person who wanted to do good amd fix existing issues. It's sad that he passed

away like especially because the elections are around the corner,"

President Cyril Ramaphosa in a written statement said on Monday that nothing could prepare the country for the sudden loss. Ramaphosa said the Johannesburg mayor was looking forward

to the forthcoming local government elections. However, some residents of Johannesburg are

asking if the ruling party, African National Congress's will be able to fill the position before the

local government elections begin in November.