Dystopian Joburg is GodZille's last roll of the dice

LIKE or loathe her — not many are neutral on the matter — it doesn’t much matter. Even at the age of 74, Helen Zille remains a force of nature and her mayoral candidacy in Johannesburg would be a political game-changer with ripples beyond the rehabilitation of a dystopian urban wasteland.

- WILLIAM SAUNDERSON-MEYER

First, Zille’s candidacy is potentially the springboard to give the DA effective control not only of Johannesburg but also of the adjacent metros of Tshwane and Ekurhuleni.

Second, with the ANC in continued decline, Gauteng would in turn possibly fall to a DA-led coalition in 2029.

Third, it would help resolve the ambiguous role that the DA currently plays in the GNU, where it is neither an influential partner nor an effective opposition.

While this depends on a lot of good fortune for the DA, it’s by no means an implausible scenario. With the right candidate for executive mayor in Johannesburg, which with a tenth of South Africa’s population contributes a fifth of its annual economic wealth, the DA could build the momentum needed to break out of half a dozen years of electoral stagnation.

Johannesburg is a basket case. Water and power systems are nearing total collapse and there is a R221billion infrastructure gap, with roads and bridges on their last legs. There is widespread municipal corruption and mismanagement, a rising budget deficit, falling revenue, and an all-engulfing financial sinkhole beckons. Civic institutions are dead or dying and over its cowed citizens hangs a miasma of despair.

The DA has previously come enticingly close in this metropolitan sprawl. In the 2021 municipal elections, it was the second-biggest party in Johannesburg, trailing the ANC’s 34% by only eight points.