Three died including mayor Jolidee Matongo in vehicle crash

Johannesburg‘s mayor Jolidee Matongo’s vehicle crashed with a van while attempting to avoid a pedestrian who had run on to the road on Sunday.

The pedestrian and the other vehicle’s driver also succumbed to their injuries.

Matongo’s two bodyguards were admitted and being treated in hospital for their injuries.

Matongo only became mayor on 10 August after the death of his predecessor from Covid-19 complications.

Born in 1975 in Soweto, South Africa, Matongo was the son of a Zimbabwean migrant and became a political activist in South Africa since the age of 13 when he started to campaign against apartheid.

He was a member of the African National Congress (ANC).

President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Matongo’s death: “It is hard to comprehend this tragedy, given the vitality and passion with which Mayor Matongo interacted with me and residents of Soweto so shortly before his death. Nothing could prepare any of us for this sudden loss, which has deprived our country’s economic centre of its second executive mayor in two months.”