The African National Congress (ANC) in the Greater Johannesburg region has confirmed that it will be fielding its own candidates, and those from its alliance partners, on Thursday when council is expected to elect the chairpersons of committees overseeing service delivery in the city.

Speaking to News24, ANC Greater Johannesburg regional secretary Dada Morero said given that the party had lost its control of the city's administration to a DA-led coalition, his party now desperately wanted to win the legislative positions of chairpersons of committees across all 14 available positions.

Morero said, "We as the ANC take legislative oversight seriously, and I can confirm that we will be fielding our own candidates and those of our partners in council."

He added that if the ANC is able to fill these legislative roles, they will be able to put checks and balances in place to ensure that the DA-led coalition provides the necessary service delivery to citizens.

Morero said the ANC will be meeting with its partners in the Johannesburg council and will be picking members who could be elected in the elections to fill the 14 chairperson positions on Thursday.

These are the positions to be filled:

• Public Safety
• Corporate and Shared Services
• Community Development
• Development Planning
• Economic Development
• Environment, Infrastructure and Services
• Finance
• Health and Social Development
• Housing
• Transport
• Oversight committee on Gender, Youth and People with Disabilities
• Oversight committee on Governance
• Oversight committee on the Legislature
• Oversight committee on Public Accounts

While the DA and its alliance partners, which include ActionSA, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), United Democratic Movement (UDM), and other smaller parties, ought to be confident of having the numbers as they head into the election of chairpersons, concerns remain among some of its coalition partners.

Speaking to News24 on Monday morning, ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba confirmed that the election of chairpersons of committees was one of the items on the agenda.

He went on to say that while ActionSA and the other alliance partners had handed over a list of preferred candidates to fill these crucial roles, there were no guarantees as to whether these nominees will be elected.

"As you know, we run a very complex coalition, but even though that's the case, we have handed over our proposals and will have to wait and see. What we need to do is use our brains and ensure that this partnership functions as we have envisioned. What we need to remember is that we did not choose to be in a coalition agreement, it was voters who made the choice and we have to honour it," said Mashaba.

He added that given the fragile coalition, there was no certainty that all partners were going to vote as a united front which posed a threat given that the ANC is set to field its own candidates.

In order to strengthen governance at the local government level, the City of Johannesburg Council engaged in a process of separating powers between the executive and the legislature.

This was done as a tool to improve, among other things, oversight and accountability.

The previous Section 80 approach, where MMCs were the chairpersons, resulted in a situation where it could be argued that the executive was both referee and player at the same time.