As South Africans head to cast their votes in different polling stations on Wednesday, the Mail & Guardian profiles mayoral candidates in three of the most highly contested metros.
Tshwane
Democratic Alliance: Solly Msimang
Msimang made a difficult decision in 2007 when he opted for a salary cut from his well-paying job as director of Ask Afrika – a business development entity – to join the Democratic Alliance to do administrative work. His wife was not pleased about the decision, but the 36-year-old from Atteridgeville township was resolute about his new career path. After having spent the better part of his career in the corporate sector, Msimang started developing an interest in politics when he worked for the American and Liberian embassies in Pretoria, where he got the opportunity to travel the world and Africa in particular.
(Troy Enekvist, M&G)
He wrote a letter to former DA leader Tony Leon in 2007, stating that while he was of the view that the party had good policies, its message did not resonate with ordinary people on the ground. The party appointed Msimang as head of the LEAD programme, which is aimed at training young leaders in communities that the party wanted to penetrate.
But little did Msimang know that almost nine years down the line, he would be standing as the DA’s mayoral candidate for the country’s capital city, one of the most closely contested metros. Msimang says if he is elected, his key priorities will be, among other things, to curb corruption, encourage more entrepreneurship and create more jobs for the unemployed.
Msimang’s previous roles include serving as a DA councillor from 2011 to 2014. He also served as Gauteng north regional chairperson for the DA before he was elected as the party’s provincial chairperson in 2014.
ANC: Thoko Didiza
The ANC’s selection of Thoko Didiza as its Tshwane mayoral candidate was met with resistance from ordinary party members – resulting in violent protests, which saw cars, buses and buildings being torched. Didiza was not among the three names nominated by ANC branches in Tshwane as a mayoral candidate, but the party’s top brass brought her in because of the factional infighting that pitted the current Tshwane mayor and ANC regional chairperson Sputla Ramokgopa against his deputy in the ANC Mapiti Matsena. Ramokgopa’s faction wanted him to retain his position while Matsena’s supporters wanted him to emerge as the new mayor.
Calm has since returned to the capital city, and Didiza, together with other senior ANC leaders, has been crisscrossing different townships in the region to campaign for the ANC’s victory on August 3. The 51-year-old Didiza is regarded as one of the most competent and experienced ANC cadres – having served as a Cabinet minister between 1999 and 2007. She resigned as public works minister, along with nine other ministers, after the ANC forced former president Thabo Mbeki to step down seven months before his second term in office came to an end.
(David Harrison, M&G)
Didiza is also serving as an ANC national executive committee member. She is currently serving as House chairperson in the National Assembly. From time to time, she presides over some of the sittings in the national assembly and has received accolades for having managed to bring order in Parliament whenever she was presiding.
EFF
The EFF has kept its mayoral candidate in Tshwane close to its chest, but the party spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi participated in some of the political activities in the region, along with other mayoral candidates from the ANC and the DA.
Johannesburg
DA: Herman Mashaba
In his short spell as a politician, DA mayoral candidate and businessperson Herman Mashaba has made a number of controversial statements, from saying he did not want to be classified as a black human being to saying he was convinced Nelson Mandela would vote for the DA if he was still alive. The Black Like Me hair-care founder has also made it clear he was opposed to the current government policy on black economic empowerment – saying it only benefited the few. But the Alexandra-born politician is confident that if he is elected Johannesburg mayor, he would change the fortunes of many unemployed and poor people.
(Madelene Cronje, M&G)
“We urgently need small business development. We need to be a business-friendly city. This way, they [business] will pay more tax to the city and employ our people,” Mashaba told the Mail & Guardian in an interview early this year. He added: “We will encourage businesses to make profit and we will give them awards for that. We need money to revive Alexandra and Diepsloot. We are also going to make sure that tender processes are transparent and benefit small businesses. At the same time, I want them [small businesses] to know that they must deliver services when they are given government contracts. So all of us must take responsibility.”
Mashaba said one of the first things he would do in his first 100 days as Johannesburg mayor would be to improve the morale of civil servants.
“The civil servants are currently being harassed by political masters. They must understand that their bosses are not politicians, but voters and the people of Jo’burg. Under the DA, we will encourage a civil society that holds us accountable.”
ANC: Parks Tau
ANC mayoral candidate Tau has earned himself a reputation as one of the best performing executive mayors in the country. Under his leadership, the Jo’burg City council was upgraded four notches up by international rating agency Moody’s for its prudence and consistency in managing its finances.
(Madelene Cronje, M&G)
However, the City under Tau has also had its fair share of criticism – with some residents lambasting its failure to timeously resolve the meter reading crisis and occasional power failures in some parts of Soweto and other townships in Johannesburg. Tau is also the current regional chairperson of the ANC in the City. He served as a member of the mayoral committee for the City – responsible for development planning, transportation and environment from 2000 to 2003, as well as the finance and economic development committee between 2003 and 2011.
EFF
Speculations are rife that Floyd Shivambu was the favourite for the mayoral candidacy, but he poured cold water on that suggestion when contacted by the Mail & Guardian this week.
“We don’t have mayoral candidates in the EFF,” said Shivambu, who represented the party in election debates with other mayoral candidates in Johannesburg, including Tau and Mashaba, in the past weeks. Shivambu said the party would only make its mayoral candidates known after the elections.
Port Elizabeth/Nelson Mandela Bay Metro
DA: Athol Trollip
Athol Trollip is the man of the moment within the Nelson Mandela Bay region and could soon become the metro’s executive mayor if electoral polls, showing the DA was ahead of the ANC in terms of electoral support, are anything to go by. Since he returned to the friendly city from Cape Town, where he served as an MP, Trollip’s popularity in the region has been on the rise. His fluency in isiXhosa has served as an added advantage for him as he can easily interact with ordinary black people in the province – some of whom have joined the DA as members.
(Leon Sadiki, Gallo)
The prospect of the DA snatching the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro does not sit well with the governing ANC. This was evident when the party recently accused Trollip of failing to act against his family following allegations that the family violated farm workers’ rights while they were still working for them in Bedford in the Eastern Cape. Trollip has dismissed the ANC’s claim as an attempt to distract the DA from its campaign to win the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro. A father of two, Trollip has served as DA leader in the Eastern Cape since 2002. He was elected to serve in the National Assembly in 2009 and was subsequently elected as the official opposition’s parliamentary leader 2012. He is the federal chairperson of the party after he was elected in May 2015 during the DA’s Federal Congress.
ANC: Danny Jordaan
Danny Jordaan was a perfect choice to be appointed as Nelson Mandela Bay mayor in 2015 and again stand as the ANC mayoral candidate for the 2016 local government elections. Already, his administrative skills and financial management are beginning to bear fruits as the municipality recently recorded a surplus of over R1-billion. But some political observers believe the ANC’s intervention to install Jordaan as mayor came a little too late to save the ANC’s demise.
(Muntu Vilakazi, Gallo)
While Jordaan has so far performed fairly well as mayor, the DA has questioned his decision to hire former correctional services commissioner Linda Mti as head of safety and security, despite the fact that he was convicted of drunk and negligence driving in 2008. Jordaan has also been under pressure from the DA after it laid criminal charges against him in connection with an alleged bribe paid by South Africa to secure the rights to host the World Cup. Jordaan also serves as president of the South African Football Association.