Helen Zille (Photo: Christine Oelofse/Maroela Media)
Helen Zille admits she was distressed when she read this week that the metro she had put her hand up for possibly taking over in November was basically bankrupt.
“There is distress. I’m not going to lie,” admits Zille, the DA’s mayoral candidate in Johannesburg, after it became known that the beleaguered metro owes its creditors R25.2 billion with only R3 billion in cash available.
But she still sees a chance for the challenge. She believes Johannesburg can still be saved.
But it won’t be easy. And it will take time, says this veteran politician in an interview with Maroela Media this week.
The leaked letter about Johannesburg. (Photo: Tania Heyns/Maroela Media)
Should she be elected as mayor of Johannesburg in November, this will be her biggest task yet. She says so herself. However, she takes solace in the fact that all her previous tasks, including those as mayor of Cape Town and prime minister of the Western Cape, have prepared her for this task.
“I have the experience, but Johannesburg is on a different level.
“When we took over Cape Town, there were still many professionals in the administration who understood what it was about… This is not the case at all in Johannesburg. It will be a completely different story.”
She devises plans in her head daily to save Johannesburg. At this stage, the plan is to approach the presidency and the national treasury, should the DA receive enough votes in this year’s municipal elections to come to power.
Helen Zille (Photo: Christine Oelofse/Maroela Media)
“Because Panyaza Lesufi (the premier of Gauteng) is not going to have any interest in our success,” says Zille, elaborating on the Gauteng government’s hostility towards the DA.
Opinion polls indicate at this stage that the DA currently enjoys the most support in Johannesburg.
However, this does not mean that the party can now “backtrack”.
Zille doesn’t do reverse gear at all. On the contrary, she does everything from rowing in flooded streets due to inadequate stormwater pipes to snorkeling in potholes. And everything in between.
Helen Zille (Photo: Christine Oelofse/Maroela Media)
Zille’s (75) election campaign team reveals before the interview to Maroela Media that they sometimes cannot keep up with her. The team worked until midnight after Enoch Godongwana, the finance minister, leaked the letter this week.
The team also already knows there is no question of leave. Should the DA come to power in November, the party will have to work throughout December to present a financed budget in Johannesburg by March.
Zille explains that 39% of the votes – as measured by a poll whose results were announced in March – will not be enough to reverse the situation in the City of Gold.
“If we get 39%, the ANC, which might get 30%, together with the EFF, MKP, PA and ActionSA might get to 50% before we do. So we have to push for the highest percentage possible to make sure we reach the pole.”
Zille says the DA only needs 490,000 residents to vote for the party on both ballots on polling day to ensure an overall majority in Johannesburg and finally have a chance to get its plans implemented.
Helen Zille (Photo: Christine Oelofse/Maroela Media)
“There are definitely 490,000 voters in Johannesburg who support the DA. They just have to register and go vote,” says Zille.
Maroela Media naturally had to ask Zille about her election campaign in the interview because she has had South Africans buzzing for months with her sometimes comical election videos on social media.
First there was a video in which she swims in a pothole in Douglasdale. Then she rowed in Dobsonville and more recently tricked over a sinkhole.
Is there anything Helen Zille is not prepared to do to persuade voters to vote for service delivery in November?
Watch the interview here: