Business Day<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe DA is fielding named mayoral candidates in all three Gauteng metros ahead of local government elections, expected later this year, aiming to replicate its previous success where the ANC lost its outright majority in the country\u2019s major cities.<\/p>\n
The 2016 municipal elections handed the party its biggest opening in a generation, stripping the ANC of its majorities in Johannesburg and Tshwane. What followed was a decline in voter participation rather than a consolidation of that shift. Brink said that pattern, more than any single electoral result, has defined the trajectory of local government since.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the very moment when there was a possibility of change, people start withdrawing from the system in greater numbers,\u201d he said. \u201cThat has shaped our politics more than anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Ekurhuleni, the city has cycled through coalition arrangements that he said were never built on principle, with smaller parties securing council positions disproportionate to their voter support and consistently gravitating back towards the ANC when it suited them, Rasilingwane said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey always run back to the ANC and just become a proxy for the ANC,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She also backed the Municipal Structures Amendment Bill as the legislative fix, arguing a 1% threshold would force voters to make a real choice rather than distribute support across parties with no credible governing mandate. The current system, she said, had produced a council where a party that secured a few thousand votes could determine the mayoralty.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will be encouraging residents to move away from voting for smaller parties,\u201d she said, \u201cbecause it distracts us from the focus we are trying to achieve.\u201d<\/p>\n
The City of Ekurhuleni carries R13bn in unpaid supplier debt. A R2.1bn billing crisis linked to fraud in the ICT department remains unresolved. Officials suspended for misconduct continue to draw salaries years after being stood down.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cannot run a city when there is no consequence management,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Both candidates backed Geordin Hill-Lewis, widely expected to be confirmed as the DA\u2019s new federal leader when the party convenes for its congress next weekend, arguing that his decision to stay out of cabinet would allow him to speak without the constraints of collective government responsibility in a way that could sharpen the party\u2019s message going into the vote.<\/p>\n
– Additional reporting by Hajra Omarjee<\/p>\n
Business Day<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The DA is throwing its weight behind a draft legislation currently before parliament that would set a minimum…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":175149,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[26410,7393,5672,90800,90803,90802,90801,89772,90799,131,14813],"class_list":{"0":"post-175148","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-south-africa","8":"tag-cilliers-brink","9":"tag-da","10":"tag-ekurhuleni","11":"tag-ekurhuleni-mayoral-candidates","12":"tag-khathutshelo-rasilingwane","13":"tag-local-government-municipal-structures-amendment-bill","14":"tag-mayoral-candidates","15":"tag-metros","16":"tag-parliamentary-bill","17":"tag-south-africa","18":"tag-tshwane"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@africa\/116362893434622704","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/OJTGEZ6FPBDT5BJX4QQ44CAYJ4.jpg\")
DA mayoral candidate for the City of Ekurhuleni Khathutshelo Rasilingwane during a Business Day interview at the Arena Holdings offices at Parktown, Johannesburg.