Black people will ‘secretly’ vote for Helen Zille in Johannesburg

Political commentator Prince Mashele said that he believes that Helen Zille, although often surrounded by criticism around race, would ‘secretly’ attract a large amount of support from black voters in her Johannesburg mayoral candidacy.

Speaking at the BizNews conference in Hermanus, he said that the party could attract voters frustrated with the African National Congress’s (ANC) governance.

Over the weekend, the DA’s Federal Chairperson, Zille, was announced as the party’s candidate for mayor of Johannesburg.

“It is a privilege for me to accept the nomination as your mayoral candidate for this great city,” she said. “My whole life, and every previous job, has been preparing me for this.”

Johannesburg, South Africa’s largest city with a 2025 population of approximately 6.4 million, contributes about 16% to the nation’s GDP and 40% to Gauteng’s economic activity.

However, the city has faced a decline in performance, with President Cyril Ramaphosa lamenting its state in council earlier this year.

Currently, Johannesburg is grappling with a deepening water crisis, with outages so widespread that Parliament has ordered Mayor Dada Morero to deliver a recovery plan within three weeks.

He was summoned on Friday, 19 September 2025, alongside Rand Water and the Department of Water and Sanitation, to account for the situation.

Zille’s speech painted Johannesburg as a critical city in decline, citing dry taps, potholes, and broken infrastructure, warning against accepting “brokenness as the new normal.”

Party leader John Steenhuisen reinforced the message, arguing that Johannesburg is too important to the country’s economy to slide.

He too listed service breakdowns, sewage spills, power cuts, and billing chaos as symptoms of years of cadre deployment and political patronage.

Steenhuisen told Newsday that the DA has demonstrated in Cape Town that municipal turnaround is possible.

Gauteng DA leader Solly Msimanga expressed optimism about the party’s prospects, citing internal polling that placed the DA ahead of the ANC in Johannesburg.

This will be the first local government elections for the ANC since the formation of former president Jacob Zuma’s MK Party.

Black people will ‘secretly’ vote for Helen Zille – Mashele

The DA has traditionally struggled to wrestle support away from the ANC, as it is still seen as a party for the white middle class among many black people.

However, Mashele told delegates at the Biznews Conference in Hermanus that Zille will attract black votes due to the ANC’s poor performance.

Mashele recently publicly endorsed Zille for Johannesburg mayor, which came as a surprise to many people, including Zille.

“There is not one black person I spoke to in Johannesburg who criticised my endorsement,” Mashele said. “They told me they will vote for her secretly,” he said.

The reason for this decision, Mashele explained, is that the majority of people have now seen what the ANC is capable of doing and has done.

“They are sick and tired of it,” he said. “I think South Africa is ready for a Western-type governance model.”

However, he warned that people should not interpret that as the rest of the country being ready for white people alone to govern South Africa.

“Black South Africans are now ready to co-govern with white South Africans. That is very important to keep in mind.”