Helen Zille in coversation with Ann Bernstein
- Helen Zille, the DA’s candidate for Mayor of Johannesburg, joined Ann Bernstein to discuss what it will take to turn Johannesburg around. This was the first of two special CDE Conversations with the candidates from the two largest parties ahead of the 4 November local government elections.
- Zille identified the root causes of the city’s decline as recent voting patterns that have produced unstable coalitions, and parties that prioritised cadre deployment and jobs for pals, which led to cronyism, corruption and, ultimately, the full-blown criminalisation of the state.
- She described Joburg as a criminal state: dominated by an interlocking network of criminal syndicates.
- Drawing on CDE’s Johannesburg Matters series, she confirmed that the City is running out of cash but pointed out that a good financial recovery plan already exists which needs to be implemented. Priorities include digitising billing, resolving disputes and collecting payments efficiently and fairly.
- Under her leadership, she said, the DA would retain municipal entities and pursue a hybrid model combining public-private partnerships with ring-fenced money for Johannesburg Water and City Power.
- On corruption, Zille noted it is so embedded that the system itself is the corruption. She would ask the President to establish an inquiry along the lines of the Madlanga Commission, led by a respected judge, to expose the big fish in Johannesburg and guarantee whistleblowers’ safety.
- Drawing on her experience of running a successful seven-party coalition in Cape Town, she warned that the larger a coalition, the harder it is to manage. She argued that a coalition with many partners cannot be stable and called on residents to give the DA an outright majority.
