DA Gauteng leader Solly Msimanga has been announced as the party’s premier candidate for the upcoming 2024 provincial and national elections.
This is Msimanga’s second bite at the cherry. The former mayor of capital city Tshwane, who was re-elected as DA provincial leader during a party conference in August, lost the premier race to former Gauteng premier David Makhura in 2019.
Taking to the podium on Wednesday after being announced by DA leader John Steenhuisen, Msimanga said: “We will rescue Gauteng, we will rescue SA.”
If elected premier, his administration will come up with an infrastructure masterplan to address water, roads, rail and electricity challenges, to grow the provincial economy.
The ANC has acknowledged it is in real danger of losing control of Gauteng, SA’s economic powerhouse that contributes nearly 40% to GDP, as it struggles to address the crises of unemployment and lack of service delivery, which affects delivery of basic services like housing, clinics, schools, water and electricity.
The province has about 582,000 discouraged job seekers, while unemployment stands at 2.6-million. More than 300,000 job opportunities were lost in 2022 due to load-shedding. The ANC has said only service delivery could help it retain control of the province in 2024.
During a national convention in August, leaders of the DA, IFP, Independent SA National Civic Organisation, FF Plus, ActionSA, United Independent Movement and the Spectrum National Party, seeking to remove the ANC from power in 2024, agreed on a power-sharing agreement called the multiparty charter for SA.
According to the deal, power will be shared in proportion to election results, appointments to government positions will be based on merit, cabinets will reflect the diversity of the country and lifestyle audits of all members of the executive will be implemented.
Msimanga, who is leader of the official opposition in the Gauteng provincial legislature, said the campaign to wrestle control from the ANC started now: “We are going to be on the ground, we are going to zigzag this province and engage with business, academia, international community and the ordinary Joe Soap.”
The ANC is on shaky ground in Gauteng, where it lost control of the crucial metros of Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane to DA-led coalitions during the 2021 municipal election, after its national electoral support fell below the 50% mark for the first time since 1994.
The ANC’s electoral support has been declining in the province over the years. In the 2019 provincial election it received 2.1-million votes, or 50.1%, down from the 53.5% it mustered in 2014.
Steenhuisen said the ANC would not get above 50% in the upcoming election. “The next premier of this province will not come from the ANC …. It is not enough that we know the ANC will lose Gauteng next year. Our job is to make sure that the DA wins power in Gauteng next year,” the DA leader said.
“Previously, we knew for certain that the ANC would win Gauteng. Now, we know for certain that the ANC will lose Gauteng. This change is an enormous step forward for our politics. Gauteng is the economic and political heartland of SA.
"It is home to one-third of our country’s total economy. And one out of every four voters in SA live in Gauteng. But, if we are to keep up with the rapidly changing political landscape in Gauteng, the DA in this province must also make a giant leap forward.”
Steenhuisen said the DA needs to campaign “not only on the basis of the ANC’s failures, but on the basis of the DA’s vision to rescue Gauteng”. This, he said, required the DA in the province to take its game to a “whole new level”.
“We will need to work much harder to register every single eligible DA voter. We will need to take our message to every corner of this province to bring hope back to many hopeless communities. If we want to ensure not only that the ANC loses next year, but that the DA wins, we will need to campaign every waking moment of every day. Because that is what a real government-in-waiting does,”he said.
DA Gauteng chair Fred Nel said Msimanga would now be the face of the party’s election in the province until 2024 and “if we do it right [he] will be the premier”.
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