Johnson was a long-serving representative of the ANC in the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature. In November 2006, she was appointed to the KwaZulu-Natal Executive Council by Premier
S'bu Ndebele; she succeeded
Blessed Gwala of the
Inkatha Freedom Party as MEC for Public Works. She held that office until the
2009 general election, in which she was re-elected to her legislative seat, ranked sixth on the ANC's provincial
party list. After the election, she was reappointed to the Executive Council as MEC for Agriculture, Environmental Affairs and Rural Development under newly elected Premier
Zweli Mkhize,'''''' succeeding
Mtholephi Mthimkhulu. However, Mkhize fired her from the Executive Council in a reshuffle in November 2011. Johnson subsequently served a stint as Chairperson of Committees in the provincial legislature. She left that office on 8 October 2013
, when she was elected as Speaker in the legislature, succeeding
Peggy Nkonyeni, who had been appointed to the Executive Council. she continued to serve as Speaker until the
2019 general election. She was also a member of the
Provincial Executive Committee of the ANC's KwaZulu-Natal branch for at least two terms, gaining election in 2012'''''' and 2015. In 2019, she did not seek re-election to the provincial legislature, In June 2022,
Ravi Pillay, the incumbent MEC for Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs, announced that Johnson had been appointed to chair the board of Ezemvelo. == References ==