On Friday, Johannesburg City Mayor Geoff Makhubo died from COVID-19 related complications at 53 years. This South African citizen was hospitalized on July 3.
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After testing positive to COVID-19 in late June, Makhubo told Johannesburg City residents to do all they could to minimize the spread of the virus and stressed that South Africa was officially in the third wave of contagion.
“Please take the non-medical precautions. Wear masks, maintain social distance and limit movement in compliance with the regulations”, his spokesman Mlimandlela Ndamase stated.
Makhubo's family requested privacy and space. For this reason, mourners were discouraged from gathering at his home. On Friday morning, Acting Mayor Eunice Mgcina shared condolences with them.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, South Africa has remained the great epicenter of COVID-19 in Africa. As of July 9, this country had reported 2,135,246 COVID-19 cases and 63,499 related deaths.
The third wave of coronavirus infections is hitting mainly the cities of Pretoria and Johannesburg in Gauteng, a province that has almost half of the active cases in the country.
Before being appointed as Mayor in Dec. 2019, Makhubo was executive business leader of the city’s council and chairperson of the governance cluster. He also served as a member of the city's finance committee from 2011 to 2016.