Helen Zille on Saturday in Eersterust, Pretoria. (Photo: Tania Heyns/Maroela Media)
Helen Zille, the DA’s mayoral candidate in Johannesburg, believes that the DA stands a very good chance of coming to power in all three Gauteng metros this year: Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni.
“Gauteng is at a turning point,” Zille told supporters of the blue party at a DA registration rally in Eersterust, Pretoria on Saturday.
“We have a real chance in this election to make the breakthrough we have been waiting for since 1959. We have been waiting for this breakthrough for 66 years.”
Geordin Hill-Lewis, federal leader of the DA, believes that six out of the country’s eight metros could possibly result in DA-led governments in this year’s election.
He told Maroela Media in Eersterust on Saturday that he “literally screamed” and ran around in his bedroom when he woke up on Thursday morning with the news that the DA had wrested ward 28 in the Emfuleni local municipality, a traditional ANC ward in Evaton West, from the ANC during Wednesday’s by-election.
“It was a big, big moment,” says Hill-Lewis.
Geordin Hill-Lewis in Eersterust, Pretoria. (Photo: Tania Heyns/Maroela Media)
“Some political commentators who usually give us a hard time call it ‘a truly sensational shift in South African politics.’
“And I think it might really be.
“This is the first time we have won a 100% township ward. I think it is symbolic. Yes, it is only one ward,” he then concedes.
“But you can see the ANC is panicking.”
Hill-Lewis thinks this is clear, after the ANC removed Sipho Radebe as mayor of Emfuleni a day after the result.
“We have to ask why the ANC just fired that mayor. Emfuleni was for years one of the worst managed municipalities in the whole country. So why did they fire him now?
“I’ll tell you why. Because they’re panicking.”
Geordin Hill-Lewis thanked Maki Tshabalala, newly elected DA councillor, and Kingsol Chabalala, the DA’s mayoral candidate in Emfuleni. (Photo: Tania Heyns/Maroela Media)
Hill-Lewis suspects there are hundreds of thousands of other residents of Gauteng who feel exactly the same as the residents of ward 28 in Emfuleni.
However, Zille believes that the DA can only take control of the three metros in Gauteng if the party gets its voters to register and vote.
“Winning the registration is an important step to winning the election. We have to play smart. We have to register more of our voters than other parties register their voters.
“If we want to win on November 4, we first have to win on June 20 and 21,” Zille said on Saturday.
“There are still 21 days until registration weekend and 158 days until November 4. We are going to have to work as if our lives depended on it and tell voters to register as if their cities depended on it, because indeed they do.”
Geordin Hill-Lewis in Eersterust, Pretoria. (Photo: Tania Heyns/Maroela Media)
‘Election is going to be nail-biting’
However, Ashor Sarupen, the DA’s national campaign manager, warns on Saturday that this year’s local elections will be nail-biting.
“The election in our towns and cities will be won or lost by very small margins. In some places the winning party will win by a few hundred votes. In other places the winning party will win by a few dozen votes.
“In some places we can get used to a street or a single voting district.”
Sarupen believes that every DA voter who is not registered in the run-up to this year’s election is a lost opportunity.
Geordin Hill-Lewis thanked Maki Tshabalala, newly elected DA councillor, and Kingsol Chabalala, the DA’s mayoral candidate in Emfuleni. (Photo: Tania Heyns/Maroela Media)
“Every person who agrees with the DA, but doesn’t get on the electoral roll, is a lost opportunity. And when elections are going to be as close as this one, lost opportunities become lost governments.
“Wanting change is not enough,” he believes.
“Supporting the DA is not enough. It is not even enough to vote for the DA if your friends and neighbors who support the DA are not registered in the first place. That is why registration is so important. Because registration will convert support into DA votes.”
(Photo: Tania Heyns/Maroela Media)