ActionSA moves to block Zille in Joburg

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Opens in new windowOpens in new windowOpens in new windowOpens in new windowEnter fullscreen mode displaying this image.ExpandDA Johannesburg mayoral candidate, Helen Zille looks up as she talks to the media at the results operation centre at Gallagher Estate in Midrand. Picture: Masi Losi Story audio is generated using AI

ActionSA, buoyed by its strong showing in Tshwane, Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni, will push the DA to drop Helen Zille as its mayoral candidate for Joburg and give the post to its leader, Herman Mashaba, instead.

Although the party is not outright opposed to Zille, it claims her “destructive ways” could be an obstacle to it supporting her for the top job.

At the heart of ActionSA’s gripe against Zille — who was the DA’s star performer in the elections — is the claim that she is “arrogant” and cannot be trusted. ANC elections chief Mdumiseni Ntuli claimed that she sees herself as a “messiah”.

“ActionSA will keep the DA out of Jozi if they insist on Helen. She is not honest; she says one thing to you today and stabs you in the back the next,” said an ActionSA source.

“We will never sacrifice Nasiphi [Moya] in Tshwane,” the source added. “She’s given us our biggest numbers yet, so we would rather let go of Ekurhuleni and Joburg.”

The push to block Zille is taking place behind the scenes as parties prepare for two weeks of intense negotiations after the local government elections ended with 122 hung councils. It comes despite Zille winning almost 35% of the vote in Johannesburg, with the ANC a distant second on just over 20% and ActionSA on about 16%.

The bad blood between Mashaba and Zille dates back to the ActionSA leader’s time as DA mayor of the city, a position he held from 2016.

Zille has hit back at ActionSA’s push to keep her out of the top job.

She told The Political Arena podcast this week: “[Mashaba] doesn’t like me because I called him out on being the EFF mayor when he was supposed to be the DA mayor and for conking in to the EFF on every single issue because they had the balance of power in the city.

“I said we can’t do that. Coalition management does not mean staying in power at all costs. There are some lines you don’t cross, and he didn’t like that. He needs to make up his mind.”

Ntuli said: “A number of us will be very uncomfortable with the display of arrogance of Helen Zille. This thing that she is the messiah, she is going to travel all the way from Cape Town to fix Joburg.”

Responding to Ntuli, Zille said suggestions that she thought she was the messiah existed only in the minds of political leaders. She said the DA had a rigorous process for selecting its mayoral candidates, to which she had also been subjected.

“I decided to put my name forward,” she said. “I wasn’t exempt from any process. There was tough competition, and my name came out. I still felt I had a contribution to make in politics. If the party rejected me, then I would have come to work in any campaign I was put in …”

When asked whether she would work with Mashaba, Zille said she did not know who was being immature in the relationship.

ActionSA chair Michael Beaumont said yesterday the party remained open to exploring all coalition options, including one with the DA and Zille.

“We do have major misgivings and concerns about any arrangement involving Helen Zille, given her well-established track record in destroying any stable and effective coalition in Joburg. Any discussions may need to examine this thoroughly,” he said.

ActionSA and the ANC are due to meet today to discuss a possible agreement, including whether to accommodate Zille.

For its part, the ANC is considering two options for the hung Gauteng metropolitan municipalities.

These include a grand coalition with either the DA or ActionSA, or a minority government in which the ANC would occupy opposition benches while entering into a confidence-and-supply agreement with whichever party governs.

“There is no other option for us. Either it’s a grand coalition between two big parties, or you say the big party governs and then we support the budgets,” said a senior party leader.

The ANC is also not going to push for its mayors to be installed, especially if a coalition arrangement involves more than two political parties.

“We will not take a mayoral position, because we [always] take the blame when [for example] robots are not working in Joburg. The ANC takes the blame because the mayor is ANC. In a coalition like that? No,” said the party leader.

Another senior ANC leader said there were also discussions about reviewing the party’s relationship with the DA as a government of national unity (GNU) partner.

However, another NEC member — who favours an ANC-DA arrangement in the metros — said a grand coalition between the two parties was the only viable option for ensuring stability.

The leader claimed ANC heavyweight David Makhura had been in talks with DA leader Geordin Hill-Lewis over the past few weeks.

But any push for an ANC-DA coalition in Gauteng is likely to face resistance from the party’s provincial structures.

Zille said preliminary election results suggested the DA could form a two-party coalition with either ActionSA or the ANC, though she cautioned that the final outcome would depend on the results and negotiations.

DA leaders were not reachable for comment yesterday, but the Sunday Times understands that the party has resolved not to publicly comment on the nitty-gritty of coalition talks.

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