Despite DA chair Helen Zille indicating her willingness to run for Johannesburg mayor in the 2026 municipal elections, the party’s Gauteng leadership has yet to formally deliberate on potential candidates, according to the province’s DA leader Solly Msimanga.
The announcement from Zille, first reported at the weekend, has given insights on the DA’s aggressive push to regain control of Gauteng’s economic hub. However, Msimanga said no official list of candidates has yet been decided, signalling the selection process is still in its early stages.
“People are still applying and we will start with the shortlisting and vetting process,” he said.
The DA is the second largest party in the 270-seat Johannesburg council and sits on the opposition benches. The city is run through a coalition with the ANC’s Dada Morero at the helm as mayor.
The ANC had previously lost the city in the 2021 municipal elections together with the metros of Ekurhuleni and Tshwane, when its support fell below the 50% mark for the first time since 1994. That led to the loss of Gauteng metros to a DA-led multiparty coalition. However, the last DA mayor of Joburg, Mpho Phalatse was ousted in 2022 through a motion of no confidence by the council.
The DA opened up applications for mayoral candidates in March in four metros including Ekurhuleni, Tshwane, Mangaung and Johannesburg. The party’s leadership is expected over the coming months to sift through the applications as it seeks to consolidate its candidates for the municipal polls.
“We have three spheres represented in the selection panels. There is the federal, provincial and regional representatives that form the interview panels. We also have an ombudsman that sits on these panels. So there can’t be an individual or sphere that can sway the process,” Msimanga said.
Johannesburg is the subject of a presidential intervention aimed at addressing service delivery challenges in a metro that is responsible for 16% of SA’s GDP and employs 12% of the national workforce.
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