The executive mayors of Johannesburg and Tshwane have laughed off reports that DA Federal Chairperson Helen Zille could become the party’s mayoral candidate for the City of Joburg in the next local government elections.
The two held a joint media briefing in Pretoria ahead the Africa Africa Mayors Assembly and U20 Sherpa Meeting scheduled for later this week and were asked for comments on Zille’s reported candidacy carried by several publications on Sunday.
City of Tshwane Executive Mayor Nasiphi Moya said she was reluctant to comment but suggested Zille was an interesting choice considering she’s not even a resident of Johannesburg.
“I learned of it on social media, but I do believe that each party must start thinking about their processes and their activities going to 2026.It’s interesting to say the least that they will go for that particular person to bring to the city of Jo’opec all the way from Western Cape, but I don’t have much to say on this one,” said Moya.
Joburg Mayor Dada Morero on the other hand believes the DA is panicking because it is observing efforts by the coalition government that he’s leading to turn around the city seemingly working.
Morero is confident he will be the ANC candidate come the 2026 local government elections.
“They would have made that statement, whilst they’ve got the leadership in Johannesburg.So I think the problem could be that they didn’t acknowledge. So we’ll wait for them.But at the same time, we were thinking this morning that the statement could affect, that there’s something now happening in Johannesburg, and the ANC and its coalition partners are turning the city around. It could mean that they are realising that something is happening. We have put together a team of job workers, the majority of them have been city managers of Johannesburg, and so on, who have put together a team to help us turn around Johannesburg,” said Morero.
Tshwane’s Deputy Mayor and Finance MMC Eugene Modise who is also the ANC regional chairperson says the DA appears to be recycling the same leaders all over again and that the party does not have confidence in its Johannesburg as well as Gauteng leadership collectives.
“It’s a demonstration of both of our confidence on the leadership of DA in Johannesburg and how things might expand.So what we need to do, and I thought you would speak about this, that we are the trailblazers in terms of the budget.So one of the things that we must emulate is part of the hallmark of this executive,is to ignore negativity and focus on saving our people.But maybe at some point it will be ideal for Lunga to run a story about the recycling leadership of the DA. And we are looking forward to that,” said Modise.