The DA’s Helen Zille beat out at least two other candidates to become the party’s top pick for Johannesburg mayor.
The party is betting her political stature and name recognition can consolidate support and strengthen its hand in the 2026 local government elections.
Internal polling shows Johannesburg “was looking very good,” according to a senior DA source in Gauteng. Though the party is targeting an outright majority in the 2026 metro race, that outcome remains unlikely. Instead, the strategy is to emerge as the largest party in a coalition, giving the DA the right to claim the mayoral chain.
“A coalition between two bigger parties is more stable than an array of smaller ones. The bigger of two parties will pick the mayor,” the source told Business Day.
The former Western Cape premier remains the party’s federal council chair while on the Johannesburg campaign trail.
The DA is scheduled to hold an internal elective congress in early 2026, where her replacement will be elected.
Joburg is SA’s most devastating example of what bad government can do to great people.
— Helen Zille
During the announcement of her candidacy in Soweto over the weekend, Zille positioned herself as a child of Johannesburg where she was born, raised and began her professional career as a political journalist who exposed the death of anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko.
“Joburg is SA’s most devastating example of what bad government can do to great people,” Zille told the crowd of DA supporters. “They [councillors] must not use their positions to steal from the people they are supposed to serve. The city administration must be staffed with skilled, ethical and capable professionals.
“These officials must be appointed for what they know rather than who they know or are related to. They must be rewarded for excellence and accountable for failure. You see, local government isn’t about ideology or grand ideals — it is about grand responsibility,” said Zille.
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.
In Tshwane, former mayor Cilliers 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 DA’s 2026 campaign received an unexpected shot in the arm last week when Ramaphosa told ANC councillors gathered in Johannesburg that they should seek to emulate the service delivery successes of DA-led municipalities such as Cape Town and Stellenbosch.
Since his comments, Ramaphosa and the ANC have sought, through various media interviews, to clarify that the president did not mean DA municipalities often receive clean audit outcomes compared to ANC-led municipalities.
Zille, however, said: “There is no braver act for a political leader than endorsing his main political opponent.”
Speaking on Sunday at the ANC Johannesburg region gathering of its councillors, party secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said the ANC would only conclude the process of choosing its mayoral candidates next year.
“The announcement will come next year when we conclude our lease process and all of that. So we don’t run an election campaign based on the personalities,” Mbalula said.
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