DA federal council chair Helen Zille says she will recuse herself from the party’s internal panel tasked with selecting candidates for the Johannesburg mayor following her decision to enter the race herself.
As the party’s chair, Zille sits on the federal executive, one of the internal party structures that is part of the selection panel for the mayoral candidates. Other representatives who sit on the selection panels include leaders from provincial and regional party structures and an ombud to resolve disputes.
“Yes, I will recuse myself to avoid a conflict of interest,” Zille told Business Day. She added that she would also be likely to step down from her role as the federal council chair should she be selected as the DA's mayoral candidate for Johannesburg.
President Cyril Ramaphosa led a national executive delegation that met the Johannesburg executive council in March as part of efforts 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.
Zille, a former Western Cape premier and former mayor of Cape Town, is among 13 contenders vying for the DA’s nomination ahead of the 2026 municipal elections. The party is seeking to reclaim control of key urban metros, including Johannesburg, which has seen political volatility and coalition fragmentation since the 2021 vote.
Her potential candidacy highlights the DA’s move towards fielding experienced leadership amid a broader push to consolidate its support in metros ahead of the 2026 local government elections.
The DA opened applications for mayoral candidates in March in four metros — 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.
In Tshwane, former mayor Cillers Brink has also thrown his hat in the ring to be the DA’s mayoral candidate. That was after ActionSA, the ANC and EFF collectively voted to oust Brink during a no-confidence vote in 2024, ending his 18-month tenure at the helm of SA’s capital city.
The auditor-general’s report for the 2023/24 financial year gave the city a qualified audit opinion, as it did in the previous year. Tshwane incurred R2.3bn in irregular expenditure in 2023/24, up from R1.9bn in the previous financial year.
Fruitless and wasteful expenditure was largely unchanged at R347m, while unauthorised expenditure increased from R423m to R2.1bn.
With Luyolo Mkentane
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