The Democratic Alliance has officially nominated the party’s federal chair and former leader, Helen Zille, to stand as its candidate for Joburg mayor in the 2026 municipal election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The party announced the nomination in Soweto on Saturday (20 September), saying that the city deserved honest leadership to pull it out of crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“What we have today is not governance. It is decay. And it cannot continue,” said DA leader, John Steenhuisen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The next local government election is not DA vs ANC. It is a choice between decay and renewal. Where the DA governs outright, we deliver.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Steenhuisen said the DA has a proven track record of good governance, and pulled quotes from President Cyril Ramaphosa earlier this week, where he told ANC councillors to follow the DA’s example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We fix leaks faster, we collect the rubbish, and we invest in electricity and we keep the water flowing through taps,” the party leader said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“What Johannesburg needs now is: honest, experienced, accountable leadership.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zille had long been rumoured to be the preferred candidate to stand for mayor in Joburg, which is currently in state of crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The city’s infrastructure is collapsing due to years of neglect and failure to maintain critical networks like water and electricity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Roads are littered with potholes, and buildings have fallen into disrepair and decay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the biggest issues in governance is that there is no outright majority for any party in the city, which has forced it to operate under incredibly shaky coalitions, which are susceptible to collapse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The DA took control of the city in 2021, under Mpho Palatse, who was elected with the support of smaller parties, including the Economic Freedom Fighters, the Freedom Front Plus, and ActionSA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, the EFF quickly turned on the DA’s leadership, with other smaller parties like the Patriotic Alliance, COPE and Action SA also proving to be unreliable partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The city is currently run by another shaky ANC-led coalition under Dada Morero.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The DA is currently the second-largest political party in the City of Joburg, with 26% of the vote, behind the ANC, which received 34%. ActionSA is third with 16%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The DA is now hoping that Zille is a strong enough name to rally support from voters in Joburg to secure a majority mandate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Let me be clear: we cannot fix Johannesburg if voters split their support across dozens of smaller parties,” Steenhuisen said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I understand the frustration. I understand the temptation to look for something new. But smaller parties get trapped in unstable coalitions, becoming pawns in political games.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The DA leader said that only a united vote “behind a capable, proven party” can restore Johannesburg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zille said she was honoured to be nominated by her party for the position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It is a privilege for me to accept the nomination as your mayoral candidate for this great city. I acknowledge with respect all the other candidates who gave me stiff competition for this honour,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zille is one of South Africa\u2019s best-known politicians. She was the DA leader from 2007 to 2015 and served as Western Cape Premier for two five-year terms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She previously said that her first objective as mayor of Joburg would be to stabilise the city’s finances, where it has a capital infrastructure backlog of R200 billion and a budget is R86 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She added that her task would be to stop the rot in the city and turn the ship around, then hand it over to her successor to move forward with what she had started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zille believes that fixing Johannesburg will take a whole-of-society approach. She sees civil society as a crucial partner in this process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Democratic Alliance has officially nominated the party’s federal chair and former leader, Helen Zille, to stand as its candidate for Joburg mayor in the 2026 municipal election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":822030,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[1329,1569],"class_list":["post-838011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-da","tag-helen-zille"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=838011"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":838013,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838011\/revisions\/838013"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/822030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=838011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=838011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=838011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}