On a good day Helen Zille is a polarising figure, on a bad day she’s a wrecking ball to race relations in South Africa. This is why it is not surprising that a strategically placed article to soft-launch Zille’s mayoral campaign in Joburg caused the stir that it did.
To place the bias upfront, it must be acknowledged that the Zille who led the DA in 2007, when many joined the party, was regarded as a remarkable leader. It was the Zille of 2019 who alienated not just former supporters but many others when she became the poster grandmother for the DA’s shift to the right.
Amusingly, some commentators have misread the political mood and assumed that the DA’s opponents fear a Zille mayoral campaign. This assumption warrants correction. In reality, nothing would please ActionSA more than for its opponents in Johannesburg to be the failed Dada Morero and the polarising Zille. In such a scenario, any credible alternative, particularly one led by the only mayor who delivered real progress in the city, would stand out in the eyes of rational Johannesburg residents.
There is no question that the timing of Zille’s soft launch opportunistically sought to take advantage of the desperation felt by Joburg residents in response to a city that is failing on every level. Judging by the response, the tactic achieved its intended impact. At this point, many residents seem willing to trade logic for a bit of hope. However, it is important to examine the merits of the idea.
Saying that Cape Town is better run than Johannesburg is stating the obvious but, let’s be frank, one can slither over the bar of Joburg’s governance right now. Similarly, no reasonable person can deny the role Zille played in Cape Town a long, long time ago. However, Zille’s candidacy is predicated upon the absurd notion that Cape Town is transplantable to Johannesburg — something, if believable, that would have seen more voters buy into the DA by now. Equally, if the experience of good governance in Cape Town was shared uniformly across all communities, the DA would have more than the paltry 5% or 10% support it achieves in poor black communities there.
Johannesburg and Cape Town could not be more different. Cape Town was wrestled away from the ANC 19 years ago in a condition vastly more amenable to turnaround than Joburg is now. Any business-minded person will tell you that two completely different CEOs are required for those two jobs.
Those who have worked in the City of Johannesburg attest that the structures and organisational cultures of the two cities differ significantly. Cape Town, when Zille took over in 2006, had been governed more by the National Party than it had by the ANC at the time of Zille’s election as mayor.
A large majority of Johannesburg’s residents are black South Africans that still suffer deeply from the worst socio-economic legacy of an unjust past, whereas black South Africans make up only around 25% of Cape Town’s population. This context matters. It is difficult to see Johannesburg residents rallying behind a candidate who has previously attributed poverty to laziness or who has romanticised aspects of colonial history.
An appreciation of the numbers shows that Joburg will only be run in coalition. The personality of those involved is more important than the parties they represent and Zille is perhaps the most unlikely person around which parties and people would coalesce.
The list of political parties that have reported coalitions with the DA to be challenging now includes the ANC, IFP, EFF, PA, ActionSA, FF Plus and the ACDP. Can all of these really be wrong?
The Zille of 2006 would not have gotten on well with the Zille of 2025. The Cape Town coalition only survived because the then Independent Democrats bailed Zille out and, like nearly every other party in coalition with the DA in Cape Town back then, the DA has rewarded that support by tossing out Patricia de Lille.
The list of political parties that have reported coalitions with the DA to be challenging now includes the ANC, IFP, EFF, PA, ActionSA, FF Plus and the ACDP. Can all of these really be wrong?
Every one of these parties has reported that it was Zille herself, even against the wishes of the DA’s provincial or local structures, that collapsed coalitions or negotiations. The reason the DA and ANC were not able to extend their GNU coalition arrangements into Gauteng was because of a last-minute set of demands Zille placed on talks which, according to those present, seemed to have the desired effect of preventing any arrangement being concluded.
Another such example occurred in 2022 when ActionSA, the DA, the FF Plus, the ACDP, the IFP and the PA had reached an agreement to reclaim Johannesburg from the ANC. To everyone’s astonishment ActionSA had given two of its three positions to the PA to make this deal happen because we knew the alternative would be worse. Every party signed on to this deal including the DA’s Gauteng team. Gayton McKenzie even publicly announced it in the media and the numbers were on our side right up until the moment Zille personally pulled the plug over the protests of the DA in Gauteng.
This is the very reason why Joburg is in the mess that it is in today, ironically the mess that Zille (as its creator) now, conveniently, avails herself to fix. If one has regard for facts and evidence, the idea that Zille or the DA care about Joburg is about as farfetched as the idea that any party will work with her in coalition.
They say desperate people will turn to desperate measures — which is exactly what is being counted upon with Zille’s mayoral campaign. For Johannesburg residents who often go without electricity or water, the desperation is real and relatable. But history shows that desperation has never been the birthplace of good ideas. Joburg requires leadership that will unite its diverse residents and this is entirely possible given how they are currently united in their dislike of the current state of affairs.
Residents who believe Johannesburg’s best days are still ahead would be better served not to invest their hopes in someone whose best days are already behind them.
• Beaumont is national chairperson of ActionSA
For opinion and analysis consideration, e-mail Opinions@timeslive.co.za
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