The DA says Zille is the right person to take down the ANC in Johannesburg.
DA’s Helen Zille at Eyethu Shopping Centre in Soweto on 20 September 2025. Picture: Gallo Images/Fani Mahuntsi
The DA’s top leaders have defended their decision to field Helen Zille as their mayoral candidate for the City of Johannesburg despite concerns about her age.
Zille is 75 years old, but the party’s campaign manager, Ashor Sarupen, told reporters on Wednesday that Zille is the right person to fix Johannesburg.
“What Johannesburg needs is someone who is going to deal with the fact that the mafia state has set into the supply chain networks and has the fortitude to go and deal with those tender networks and clean them out,” he said.
Sarupen said Zille has the experience of taking down two ANC administrations, in the Western Cape and in the City of Cape Town. He said the DA believes she can do the same in Johannesburg.
“Fundamentally, if we do not rescue Johannesburg from corrupt mafias, the water tanker mafias, the tender networks, we are never going to get it working.
“So what Joburg needs is not a face. It needs someone who is going to fix the underlying structural problems. And who better is going to help us fix the underlying structural problems in Johannesburg than someone who did it in the City of Cape Town and in the Western Cape?
“It’s not about the optics, it’s about the actual work that is being done. If you speak to voters in Johannesburg, they will tell you that they just want someone who can fix the street lights, sort out the potholes and so on,” said Sarupen.
Joburg finances
He said Zille’s decisive leadership will also help fix Johannesburg’s finances.
“I think the DA has put Helen as the best option available for Johannesburg precisely because of her track record, precisely because she will clean up corruption.
“She will get her hands dirty because she will give that city and its administrative team a kind of decisive leadership that will begin to rescue its finances.”
The ANC’s gift
Sarupen said he had noted the names that the ANC has bandied around as possible mayoral candidates for the City of Johannesburg. But he believes that no candidate can save the ANC from losing electoral support.
“The ANC has given Johannesburg a series of terrible mayors and the truth is they have broken trust so much that I do not really think the idea of a New Dawn leader sells for the electorate anymore.
“They need to introspect about the choices they made up to now, including allowing mayors from parties that get less than 10 000 votes to hold the mayorship in Johannesburg.
“So, the gift the ANC has given us is actually that they have run the place to the ground to a point where people are desperate for change in Johannesburg,” he said.
ANC’s ‘commitment’ to good-governance
The ANC’s regional secretary in Johannesburg, Sasa Manganye, on Tuesday said the party is doing its best to serve residents and fast-tracks service delivery.
“The ANC in Greater Joburg continues to engage communities, listen to residents’ concerns and advocate for practical interventions that improve service delivery, create economic opportunities, invest in infrastructure and ensure accountable governance.
“Our campaign is rooted in the work that is already being implemented on the ground: fixing water infrastructure, improving electricity networks, revitalising the inner city, expanding affordable housing opportunities, cleaning public spaces and strengthening support for vulnerable households,” he said.
