THE INTERVIEW: Fresh face, bold policies — EFF’s Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng outlines her vision for Joburg

The EFF’s Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng has injected fresh energy into the Johannesburg mayoral race. She sat down with Daily Maverick to discuss in detail her strategic roadmap for the city, which focuses on expanding 24-hour healthcare, writing off indigent debt and insourcing municipal workers to drive local job creation.

The EFF’s mayoral candidate for Johannesburg, clinician, author and former UN special rapporteur for the right to health, Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng, is gunning for a 51% majority in the hopes of avoiding a political coalition.

Mofokeng is a fresh choice in a mayoral race dominated by seasoned politicians like the DA’s Helen Zille and ActionSA’s Herman Mashaba. Over the past 20 years, Mofokeng has built a prominent platform advocating for universal health access, HIV care, reproductive healthcare and youth-friendly health services. She served as the commissioner for Gender Equity and was on the boards of local and international health organisations including the Soul City Institute for Social Justice , the Safe Abortion Action Fund and the Global Advisory Board for Sexual Health and Wellbeing.

In 2020, she gained a seat on an international governance stage when the United Nations appointed her as special rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, where she platformed a human-rights-based approach to healthcare.

Now she’s turned her attention to the city where she began her career to bring this approach to local governance. Mofokeng was announced as the EFF’s Johannesburg mayoral candidate by party leader Julius Malema at the party’s 13th birthday celebration in Thohoyandou.

Throughout her campaign, she has consulted with key stakeholders including residents, members of the taxi industry, informal traders and small business owners. All have shaped her core human-rights-based approach, which includes moving away from politically unstable coalitions, eliminating corruption, consolidating municipal services into a one-stop shop where residents can resolve all their billing issues, and regular consultations with residents and key stakeholders.

Daily Maverick sat down with Dr Mofokeng to discuss her policy proposals in more detail.

Q: You have a great deal of experience in global health and little practical experience in governance. What makes you qualified for this role?

A: My career has been in politics and policy and global governance in health. And so, the idea of governance, policy-making, negotiating and the kind of skill sets required to then be a leader in a political party is something that I possess.

In South Africa, my history has been one, even in civil society, as a young doctor, involved with the Department of Social Development in their population unit, when they used to hold those consultations to look at their frameworks for adolescent health, their frameworks on the Trace and Termination of Pregnancy Act, relooking at policy that enables more access to sexual and reproductive health rights to people with disabilities, LGBT+ populations.