Former Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba will officially launch his political party in August and will be gunning for the three metros in Gauteng.

Mashaba also has his sights on his former position as the first citizen of  Johannesburg.

He revealed this during a press conference on Wednesday where he was giving a report back about the work done by his NGO The People’s Dialogue.

Mashaba revealed that at the moment his party was looking at contesting only municipalities that it had a chance of running.

So far, he said, these were Ekurhuleni, Tshwane and Johannesburg.

He said, unlike other smaller parties that had failed in the past, his party would not be looking to contest all municipal councils in the 2021 local government elections.

“This is a mistake that many new political parties make, they have contested all 278 municipalities with only months to prepare, with the unambiguous outcome of gaining a councillor here and there.

“This is why they have failed. Our political party will identify municipalities that are strategic in nature and where we will win. We will govern in these municipalities and we will demonstrate value by improving the lives of the people who live in those municipalities,” said Mashaba.

He  took a swipe at his former party, the DA, and the now-struggling Agang SA, which was formed in 2013 by Mamphela  Ramphele.

“I can emphatically say that I won’t be kissing Helen any time soon,” said Mashaba, referring to a move by Ramphele to join forces with the official opposition party in 2014, where she shared a kiss with then DA leader Helen Zille during a press conference.

He said his party would allow  South Africans to choose candidates for the local government elections next year and a similar system would be used to choose candidates to contest provincial and national government elections. 

Mashaba said they were in the process of finding a name for his political party. He said a decision had been takento let The People’s Dialogue continue as an NGO.

Asked about who funds the party, he said most of the funding came from his family.

“Up to now ... my family took a decision really to support my initiative because we had no time to wait. So far, up to 95% of the millions put towards this project have  been donations and support from my family,” said Mashaba.

He said ordinary South Africans have made up the rest of the funding, including some pensioners donating as little as R10.

“The biggest funding that we received from individuals is R100,000 from one individual. So basically we have been getting R20, R10 and so forth,” said Mashaba.