By BAKANG MOKOTO
24 September 2025- The ANC Women’s League (ANCWL) said it is astounded by the recent announcement by the Democratic Alliance (DA) to nominate Helen Zille (74) as the mayoral candidate for the City of Johannesburg in next year’s local government elections. The structure said the City of Johannesburg is not only the economic hub of the country, but is also a cosmopolitan metropolis of the African continent, where people from everywhere in the continent and elsewhere, converge for better economic opportunities.
The ANCWL Secretary-General, Nokuthula Nqaba said the absolute leader of the DA, Helen Zille in 2012, whilst serving as the Western Cape Premier, referred to the people of Eastern Cape who relocated to the Western Cape as refugees, and demanded their immediate deportation. Nqaba said these utterances not only undermined the compass of their constitutional democracy, but confirmed the DA policy of exclusionism which is characterised by prejudice and collective hatred for black people.
“The deep-seated idiocy in her statement on Eastern Cape refugees was owing to the fact that Zille herself was born in Johannesburg with both her parents of German descent, but still had the impudence to refer to indigenous people with such resentment.
“In her nomination acceptance speech, Zille promised the citizens of Johannesburg, “better delivery of water, electricity, road repair and refuse services”, which is in stark contrast to her legacy of disservice in the vast majority of African and Coloured townships in the City of Cape Town,” she said.
Nqaba further said Zille’s self-proclaimed clean governance during her tenure as mayor of Cape Town is in full display as one drives along the N7 in the densely populated poverty stricken Du Noon near Killarney, her legacy project in Blikkiesdorp in Delft, where temporary structures have been turned into permanent residence since 2007. She added that the only proven track record to be attributed to the DA is its inherent disregard for transformation and their political conviction remains that of the protection of White privilege and supremacy.
“The DA and its Johannesburg mayoral candidate are disingenuous in their promise for service delivery and the only vice that cannot be forgiven is hypocrisy,” said Nqaba.
The Guardian 