Zille’s ‘gusheshe’ campaign has paid off for the DA, says expert

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DA mayoral candidate Helen Zille at the National Results Operation Centre (ROC) in Johannesburg, 5 November 2026, monitoring the results process for the 2026 Local Government elections. Picture: Nigel Sibanda/The Citizen

The DA is on the rise in the metros, with initial counts showing it was leading four of the eight metropolitan councils – a feat that experts attribute to the party’s service delivery record in Cape Town and elsewhere, which they want emulated in their own cities.

The party even has a big show in the Emfuleni Local Municipality in Gauteng, an ANC stronghold, where it surprised itself by stealing ten council seats from the ANC in these elections.

They expected to win two seats, but they received more than they bargained for.

Similarly, the DA was said to be leading in Metsimaholo Municipality, another ANC-controlled municipality in Gauteng south, strengthening the party’s lead in Gauteng, overall.

Political commentator, author, and research fellow at the Institute for Pan-African Thought and Conversation Rebone Tau put it straight that these elections are about service delivery, and the DA is seen as reflecting it.

He said the fact that the DA began its campaign early gave it an advantage and enough time to build its profile among the Joburg voters. They want a share of Helen Zille’s leadership experience and the DA’s performance in Cape Town, where she was mayor.

“People see a clean Cape Town under the DA, and they want to see the City of Joburg and even Soweto looking like Cape Town. Joburg as it is now is a crime scene; you can’t carry your cell phone around, but in Cape Town, there is high security,” said Rebone, who had a conversation with DA senior members about the voters’ expectations during the campaign.

Overall, the Democratic Alliance has performed well, controlling four of the eight metropolitan municipalities in the country based on initial results.

Whether that will change remains to be seen, but Zille is set to become the mayor of Johannesburg unless an alternative coalition is cobbled together between the ANC, ActionSA, and others outside the DA’s blue train influence.

Independent political analyst Goodenough Mashego attributed the DA’s performance to its “good messaging” associated with Zille.

“Zille’s optics in her Joburg campaign have worked wonders for the DA,” Mashego said, noting Zille’s grand entrance during a rally in Soweto in a gusheshe (BMW 323 or 325i) and holding a bottle of beer.

He said these optics resonated with township residents and linked Zille to local voters.

“She targeted black voters in her messaging. The DA might not be fully perfect in governance, but they are perfect with messaging,” Mashego said.

Overall, the DA seems to be gaining momentum, with 24% in early national results, behind the ANC at 31% in the IEC leaderboard.

MK Party follows in third at 9%, with the EFF fourth at 6%. However, the vote count was still unfinished, and numbers were expected to change; the DA showed improved performance from the previous elections, while the ANC was lower.

The DA’s strong showing is not confined to its political base in Cape Town Metro or the Western Cape; it also showed resilient performance in Joburg and Nelson Mandela Bay metros, two battlegrounds of local politics.

However, the DA seemed to have lost its grip on the eThekwini and Buffalo City metros after the MK party monopolised the Durban-based municipality, completely taking it from the ANC.

The ANC remains ahead at Buffalo City in the Eastern Cape, where the DA and United Democratic Movement were competing for the second position or the next official opposition at the KuGompo City-based council.

But the ANC has lost ground to the DA at Nelson Mandela Bay metro (NMBM) this time around. With 80% of the votes counted by yesterday afternoon, the ANC has little hope of overtaking the DA in this previously hung metro council.

A shock in its rallying upward trajectory has been the previously safe Mangaung metro, a safe ANC stronghold in Bloemfontein and the party’s 1912 birthplace.

Overall, the ANC has declined compared to the 2024 national and provincial election outcomes, where it achieved 40%.

Observers, however, cautioned against too much optimism in favour of the DA. According to them, the proportional representation (PR) results may upset the initial votes that might have been achieved by parties.

Mashego said that until the township votes are counted, particularly in Soweto, nobody should conclude that the DA has done very well in Joburg. He cautioned that the DA should not feel comfortable with the early results.

Reacting to the promising DA electoral showing, an ecstatic Zille believes the ANC is beginning to crack and the DA is slowly filling the gap because its support among black voters is increasing.

“We’ve tripled or quadrupled our support in those communities. Some we did really well in, and so you know we’ve broken this monolith of politics in black communities.

“Black people now support different parties, which is a very healthy thing in a democracy because people can’t be thought of as a homogeneous mass because they’re the same colour.

“People have different opinions; they have different identities in a whole range of areas apart from race, and that’s a great thing for democracy. Yeah, a really great thing for democracy,” Zille said in an interview.

According to Mashego, the DA took advantage of the ANC mistakes, especially the dilapidation chaos on the Joburg streets, the water shortage and other issues.

“The DA benefited because the ANC messed up. Also, the DA is the only alternative to rely on outside of the ANC,” Mashego said.

The analyst believes the DA is not going to reach over 50% anywhere else in the country except Cape Town.

Zille’s chances to fulfil her mayoral ambition in Joburg could be frustrated by a potential ANC-ActionSA coalition including other smaller parties, which could offer the mayorship to ActionSA’s Herman Mashaba.

He went further to state that the ANC and ActionSA might do horse-trading of mayoral and speakership positions in Joburg and Tshwane in exchange for supporting each other against the DA.

Mashego argued that at eThekwini, where the MK party is leading in the initial vote outcomes, the DA, ANC and IFP could repeat what they did in the KZN provincial administration in 2024 by combining forces to prevent MK from getting into power.

The ANC, DA, IFP and NFD formed a minority coalition government in KZN, stopping the MK party from assuming power or electing a premier despite its overall victory in the provincial polls.

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