Herman Mashaba questions Helen Zille's fitness for Johannesburg mayoralty
Democratic Alliance (DA) Federal Council Chairperson Helen Zille has put her hand up for the Johannesburg mayoral position, but ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba accused her of being too anti-poor for the position.
Image: Itumeleng English / Independent Newspapers
ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba has launched a scathing attack on DA Federal Council chairperson Helen Zille's bid to become the City of Johannesburg mayor, saying she was not fit for the position as she did not have the interest of poor communities at heart.
Zille, whose party is infamous for opposing pro-black transformation policies, was reported to have said that she had been approached to contest to become the mayor of Johannesburg, which is the hub of the country's biggest economy.
It was reportedly said that she would consult her family before deciding on whether to enter the race.
However, Mashaba, who resigned as the city's mayor and also dumped the DA in 2019 in protest against Zille's return to the party position as the federal council chairperson, said that as a South African citizen, Zille has every right to contest any position.
But he questioned her ability to deliver services to the black and white areas equally.
The former Western Cape premier did not waste much of her breath responding to Mashaba's attack.
'Not many people take Herman seriously anymore, I am afraid.
'All the data and evidence show that poor people in Cape Town have better service delivery than in any metro in the country,' said Zille.
Mashaba stated that the DA-governed City of Cape Town continues to uphold the legacy of apartheid, as townships remain neglected.
'Helen shows a lack of interest in providing services to poor communities.
'In Khayelisha, Gugulethu, and Langa, the situation is worse than it was before 1994,' said Mashaba during his visit to Durban to collect views from the communities about the performance of the Government of National Unity this weekend.
He stated that when he was still the mayor of Johannesburg under the DA, his efforts to deliver services to poor communities would be met with resistance from Zille.
'Anybody to say Cape Town is successful, is Khayelisha and Gugulethu not part of Cape Town?
'I resigned (as the mayor) because Helen was pressuring DA white councillors to put pressure on me, including approaching the ANC, to remove me as she had problems with providing services to poor communities.'
Mashaba said ActionSA had to facilitate the removal of DA's Cilliers Brink as the City of Tshwane mayor because of an imbalance of service delivery.
'He was governing with ActionSA's support, but he was refusing to provide services to the black townships.
'That is why we said no, we cannot allow this man because they are not ready to change their act.
'My experience of Helen Zille is that she still suffers from the Verwoerd mentality, the system under which she was brought up, and unfortunately, it is the DA's DNA,' said Mashaba.
He was referring to the apartheid mentality, whose architecture was former prime minister Hendrik Verwoerd.
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