Herman Mashaba will be hanging up the mayoral chains on Wednesday after three years in office as Johannesburg's mayor.

Mashaba resigned last month, citing tensions with the DA.

This after Helen Zille was appointed as the chairperson of the party's federal council.

Bidding farewell, Mashaba looked back on his time at the metro.

Mashaba told Radio 702 that during his time as mayor he focused on combating corruption in the region and creating a professional service to the public.

He said he had inherited a region where favours were common and corruption was widespread.

“I managed to get rid of comrades who were in the city to serve themselves and their political parties, instead of society.

“I inherited a public service that thought it was doing people favours instead of residents doing them a favour. It is the people that did us a favour for putting us into these positions,” said Mashaba.

Mashaba said his resignation from the DA was, in part, based on the opposition party no longer supporting his policies, so he decided to call it quits instead of being “pushed out”. 

Mashaba said, should the city of Johannesburg continue to serve society, it would not be easy to damage the foundation he has laid.

Last week, Mashaba described his job as mayor as painful but rewarding.

TimesLIVE reported that he said in the past three years, to get some sleep, he had to take sleeping tablets, because the job was tough.

“For you to be able to do your job, you are going to need political support, political support that does not really interfere with the work that you do. They have got to allow you to operate within the law,” he told members of the city's metro police.