A city up for grabs: disaffected

More than 40% of Gauteng's citizens say no party speaks for them. With Johannesburg facing multiple crises, the job of mayor may be a poisoned chalice - but it's also the biggest prize in local politics. By Ferial Haffajee

- Ferial Haffajee

Johannesburg, South Africa's grand dame city, is tilting — and political heavyweights from Helen Zille to Herman Mashaba are lining up for the job everyone calls a poisoned chalice.

Exclusive new data from the Ipsos Khayabus survey shows that Gauteng voters are up for grabs. The numbers can be extrapolated to Johannesburg.

"When we tested the reaction of South Africans to the statement 'there is no political party that represents my views', 43% of citizens in Gauteng agreed or strongly agreed with this statement," says Ipsos director and political analyst Mari Harris.

The Khayabus omnisurvey is South Africa’s largest in-home survey.

“Would-be voters feel uncertain and are not necessarily committed to a political party. Our politics is probably more in flux than it has been in a while.”

Asked to state a preference if an election were held tomorrow, those surveyed in Gauteng favoured the ANC (42%), DA (24%), EFF (14%) and MK party (8%), with the rest split among smaller parties, undecided or would not say.