JOHANNESBURG, Saturday 5 September 2026 — Floyd Shivambu’s Afrika Mayibuye Movement has named Prince Mokotedi as its mayoral candidate for Tshwane and Themba “Skeem GP” Lukhele as its candidate for Ekurhuleni, formally entering two of Gauteng’s most competitive metropolitan mayoral races ahead of the 4 November local government elections.
The party announced the candidates on Saturday as it marked a year since its establishment as a political party and prepared for its local government election campaign.
SABC News reported that Afrika Mayibuye intends to contest more than 4,000 wards nationally and that the Tshwane and Ekurhuleni candidates emerged from consultations with members, supporters and communities.
The movement has not yet announced its candidate for Johannesburg.
That leaves South Africa’s largest municipality as a significant outstanding part of Afrika Mayibuye’s Gauteng electoral slate.
The Tshwane nomination puts Mokotedi into a race where the DA is seeking to return former mayor Cilliers Brink to office, while the ANC is still completing its process of selecting a candidate from a shortlist announced in August.
Tshwane has been governed through unstable coalition arrangements since the ANC lost its outright majority in 2016.
Small parties have consequently been able to exercise influence disproportionate to their overall share of the vote, particularly when no major party controls enough seats to govern alone.
That makes Afrika Mayibuye’s participation potentially important even if it does not challenge the largest parties for first place.
Its ability to win several council seats could affect post-election coalition arithmetic.
Mokotedi is a former senior National Prosecuting Authority official who later served in the Hawks.
He was appointed Gauteng head of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation in 2016 after previously heading the NPA’s Integrity Management Unit.
His entry therefore gives Afrika Mayibuye a candidate with experience in national law-enforcement institutions rather than conventional municipal politics.
In Ekurhuleni, the party has opted for a markedly different political profile.
Lukhele, widely known as Skeem GP, is a television personality, podcaster, motivational speaker and political organiser who has built a public profile partly around his experience as a former offender and subsequent community work.
He has previously spoken publicly about spending seven years in prison and his efforts after release to discourage young people from entering crime.
Lukhele became increasingly prominent inside Afrika Mayibuye during 2026 and was given responsibility for mobilisation as the movement expanded its structures ahead of the elections.
Reports about a potential Ekurhuleni mayoral candidacy had circulated earlier this year, but those reports described him only as being considered for the role.
Saturday’s announcement moves the matter from speculation to a formal party nomination.
Ekurhuleni is likely to be one of the closest municipal contests on 4 November.
The ANC lost its outright majority in the metro in 2016, after which the municipality experienced repeated changes of administration and prolonged coalition instability.
Current mayor Nkosindiphile Xhakaza is among the ANC figures being considered for the party’s 2026 mayoral nomination.
Finance MMC and ANC regional secretary Jongizizwe Dlabathi and former mayor Ntombi Mekgwe are also on the ANC shortlist.
Opposition parties are simultaneously seeking to expand their representation.
The DA, EFF, ActionSA, MK Party and smaller formations are competing in a council where relatively small shifts in proportional support could determine the governing coalition.
Afrika Mayibuye therefore does not necessarily need to become one of the largest parties to influence the eventual administration.
A handful of seats could become important if neither an ANC-aligned nor DA-aligned bloc approaches a majority after the election.
The movement began as a consultation initiative after Shivambu left the MK Party and formally became the Afrika Mayibuye Movement in September 2025.
At its launch, Shivambu said the organisation intended to contest the 2026 municipal elections and the 2029 national and provincial elections.
The party has since built provincial structures and conducted a nationwide verification process for councillor candidates.
It said in August that candidates were being checked for voter registration, party membership and compliance with IEC documentation requirements before inclusion on its final lists.
Saturday’s mayoral announcements represent the next stage of that process.
The outstanding Johannesburg candidate will now be closely watched because Gauteng’s three metros are expected to be central to coalition negotiations after the election.
The electoral test for Afrika Mayibuye will be whether Shivambu’s political profile and the movement’s unconventional candidate choices can translate into municipal seats in a crowded field.
