The mayor of Johannesburg, Jolidee Matongo, was killed in a car accident a little more than a month after his election, announced his office in a statement.
Mr. Matongo, 46, had been elected on August 10 as head of the economic capital of South Africa after the death of his predecessor after he was infected by Covid-19.
The accident, the circumstances of which were not specified, occurred while the mayor was returning from a campaign to encourage voter registration in the township of Soweto, in preparation for the November 1 local elections in South Africa.
“Nothing could have prepared any of us for this sudden loss, which has robbed the economic center of our nation of its second mayor in two months,” reacted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who had accompanied Matongo to Soweto, on Twitter.