DA prepares to unveil eThekwini's mayoral candidate after selecting Zille for Johannesburg
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in KwaZulu-Natal is set to announce the party’s mayoral candidate for the eThekwini Municipality next week.
Party leader Francois Rodgers made the announcement in a statement last week.
The Mercury understands that among the frontrunners will be Haniff Hoosen and Alicia Kisson, along with a third candidate who has been interviewed.
Sources within the party indicate that Hoosen is the leading candidate for the position. Hoosen confirmed that he was interviewed for the post.
“There were about six people that applied. The party said they will inform us in due course.”
Kisson also mentioned that she had been interviewed for the post.
“But we cannot speak on the matter until the candidate is revealed,” she said.
This comes after the party announced Helen Zille as its mayoral candidate for the City of Johannesburg. The former Cape Town mayor and current DA federal council chair accepted her nomination on Saturday during an event in Soweto, IOL reported.
Rodgers said the party was expecting a good performance in next year’s local government elections. He added that they will be targeting several municipalities where they could take over or achieve a majority in the councils, although he did not name the specific municipalities they will be gunning for.
The DA’s optimism about its performance in the upcoming elections has been bolstered by positive reviews of its governance of its only municipality in the province, the uMngeni Local Municipality.
Additionally, the ANC, which currently controls several municipalities in the province, is heading into these elections facing a myriad of challenges, including service delivery issues, the threat of the MK Party, and recent remarks by the party president, Cyril Ramaphosa, that DA municipalities are well-governed. Many fear that these remarks could signal trouble for the ANC in the elections.
Rodgers told The Mercury that they are gearing up for these elections, stating, “As far as the next municipal elections are concerned, we have already put together our provincial strategic plan where we have identified strategic municipalities where we believe we have a good chance of returning to power and also being the biggest party in those municipalities.
“That is an area that we are focusing on. We are also busy with a roadshow throughout the province to look at constituency-based strategic plans.
“As the leadership, we are doing that, and we believe we are well positioned with the current dynamics of politics in the province to certainly make some serious inroads in the next election and to govern more municipalities.”
He said they appreciated the president’s recent remarks recognising that DA councils are successful, adding that one can look at the audit outcomes. He emphasised the importance of parties collaborating, noting that while they might come from different parties, they are willing to work with others.
“As different spheres of government, we need to look at what works and what does not so that what we do as politicians is in the best interest of our towns and cities.”