Adam Habib backs Helen Zille as the candidate to rescue Johannesburg
Former Wits vice-chancellor Adam Habib has thrown his weight behind Helen Zille, saying the Democratic Alliance’s Johannesburg mayoral candidate is the perso...
Former Wits vice-chancellor Adam Habib has thrown his weight behind Helen Zille, saying the Democratic Alliance’s Johannesburg mayoral candidate is the person who can pull the city back from collapse. His endorsement lands as the race for Johannesburg heats up ahead of the November 4 local government elections.
The contest is already crowded. Zille is facing challengers that include Patriotic Alliance deputy leader Kenny Kunene, while the campaign has split opinion across the city. Some voters see her as the candidate willing to name Johannesburg’s service-delivery failures. Others are unconvinced. Not even close.
A city under strain
Johannesburg’s infrastructure problems have become part of Zille’s pitch. Her campaign has leaned hard on the city’s broken roads, burst pipes, water shortages and flooded streets, using eye-catching stunts to make the point. In Douglasdale, she filmed herself swimming in a sinkhole filled with water after a neglected burst pipe. In Dobsonville, she used an inflatable boat and a kayak to move through a badly flooded road.
That style has drawn fire. Critics, including rivals such as Herman Mashaba, have dismissed the scenes as publicity plays. Supporters say she is exposing a city in visible distress. The divide is sharp.
Zille’s pitch: love Joburg, fix Joburg
Zille has framed the campaign in blunt terms. “You may not like me,” she told the SA Jewish Report. “You may not like the DA either. You just have to love Joburg.”
She has argued that the stakes go beyond city politics. “If Joburg fails, South Africa fails,” she said.
At a packed pledge launch at Johannesburg City Hall in March, she set out five priorities, including reliable water and electricity and fixing roads. Supporters cheered her promise to “get Joburg working” and said the city had deteriorated under ANC rule. Zille blamed corruption and vowed to ring-fence service revenue.
Coalition fears hover over the race
Habib’s backing also points to a deeper anxiety inside the race: what happens if Zille wins the most votes but not a majority. He warned that other politicians could band together to keep her out of office even if she finishes first. Coalition arithmetic could decide the mayoralty. Again.
That risk matters in a city where the outcome is already being watched well beyond South Africa. Johannesburg is the country’s biggest metro and a financial hub with ageing infrastructure, heavy service-delivery pressure and an election that is shaping up as one of the most fiercely contested in years.
Zille, 75, has leaned into that pressure, moving from inner-city inspections to meetings with residents and engineers, with a campaign that treats every pothole and broken light as political evidence. The next test is simple enough. Whether voters give her the majority she says Joburg needs, or whether the post-election horse-trading starts before the first council meeting.
