LOCAL ELECTIONS 2026: Zille is targeting the ANC’s heartland in Joburg, but voters are doubtful

{JSON.stringify(article.attachments[0], null, 2)} --> If the DA wants to win a majority in Johannesburg, it’ll need to improve in Soweto. The party has pockets of support, but it faces an uphill battle.

“I love the DA,” said Protea South resident Seela Phineas Malesa (67), a party poster proudly displayed in the window of his Soweto shack.

Soweto, with its population of 1.2 million people, has always been an ANC stronghold that’s seen as critical to winning the City of Johannesburg. With the ANC in freefall, the DA’s Joburg candidate, Helen Zille, has been targeting the area in its bid to win support from the almost 500,000 voters she says are needed across the metro to win a majority.

The DA has a small but loyal following in the sprawling region, which Zille hopes to expand to bolster votes from the party’s suburban base in her bid to take a majority or get close to it and form a favourable coalition.

Malesa previously supported the Land Party : “A tide of us had walked out of the ANC, convinced it no longer represented our interests. We wanted our voices amplified, and at that moment the Land Party was very strong.”

On realising that the Land Party had lost steam, they followed local leader Maureen Mnisi to the DA more than 10 years ago. Mnisi now serves as the DA’s Ward 10 PR councillor in Protea South, where the DA has pockets of strong support.

The question is whether these supporters can convince their neighbours to vote DA on 4 November when there’s expected to be a low voter turnout and lingering criticism that the party primarily represents white people continues.

In a recent interview in which he dismissed Zille’s bid to win a majority, Herman Mashaba, the ActionSA leader, said : “If she thinks she will win Joburg without the support of Soweto, she must be living in another world.”

In 2021, the ANC led Soweto in every ward, although its numbers have declined in successive elections.

Zille launched her campaign in Soweto on 20 September 2025 at the historic Eyethu Centre and has campaigned there multiple times since (that’s where she filmed the rowing video ).

“Soweto is extremely decisive,” elections analyst Wayne Sussman said about Soweto in the race for Joburg.

“Johannesburg is the largest metropolitan area, and if my memory serves me correctly, about almost 30% of the wards in the elections are in Soweto.”

He added: “That is absolutely significant. You compare that to Alexandra, you compare that to a number of other areas, it’s by far the largest area.”

Gareth van Onselen’s Inside Politics reports that the DA won 31,324 ward ballot votes (9.77%) in Soweto under Mmusi Maimane’s leadership in 2016, but that dropped to 9,355 (4.1%) in 2021 as many voters stayed away from the polls.