Solly Msimanga has been named as the Gauteng premier candidate for the Democratic Alliance (DA). Photo: Instagram @sollymsimanga
Democratic Alliance (DA) Gauteng leader Solly Msimanga has been given another shot at the title after he was named as the opposition party’s Gauteng premier candidate on Wednesday.
The former Tshwane mayor, who was re-elected as DA provincial leader during a party conference in August, lost the premiership race to former Gauteng premier David Makhura in 2019.
DA leader John Steenhuisen lauded the “son of Atteridgeville” for his “experience, enthusiasm and determination”.
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Msimanga, who earned himself the nickname of “Kleintjie” because he was the youngest and shortest in his class at Soulridge High School, was employed at the Liberian embassy, as well as at the American embassy, before joining the DA.
After attending a DA event in 2006, Msimanga wrote a letter to the party, criticising its campaign approach. Ryan Coetzee, the party’s CEO, spin doctor and strategist at the time, responded by offering him a staff position.
Msimanga was elected mayor of Tshwane after the 2016 local elections through a coalition government between the DA and a number of smaller parties, with the informal backing of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).
He stepped down as the mayor of Tshwane in 2019 to focus on his ambition of becoming the provincial leader.
He was then appointed as the DA’s acting provincial leader after the departure of John Moodey and was officially elected to the position at the DA’s virtual Gauteng conference in 2020.
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Msimanga will most likely face off against the ANC’s Panyaza Lesufi and possibly the EFF’s Mbuyiseni Ndlozi in the fierce leadership battle for Gauteng in 2024.
Following the DA’s announcement, political analyst Dr Ongama Mtimka told Daily Maverick that Msimanga is viewed as a consistent and stable figure by prospective DA voters in Gauteng due to the considerable amount of years of his affiliation with the party.
“This is crucial for the DA which has seen significant changes elsewhere in the country. His nomination also serves as a counter-narrative to the framing of the DA as increasingly anti-black.
“His work is cut out though as Panyaza Lesufi seems determined to fend off the threatened position of the ANC in the province and there are also equally competing alternatives for the cosmopolitan voters in the continent,” Mtimka added.
While announcing Msimanga as the party’s candidate, Steenhuisen also urged parties to support the DA’s motion for the complete dissolution of the Johannesburg council.
Steenhuisen said that for the first time the DA was not fighting to be the official opposition in Gauteng, but to govern Gauteng alongside its Multi-Party Charter partners.
“The unholy alliance between the ANC, EFF and PA has utterly destroyed Johannesburg,” he said, blaming the current Johannesburg coalition for the gas explosion in the Johannesburg CBD, as well as the recent fire which broke out in a hijacked building in the inner city, claiming the lives of almost 80 people.
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“I call on every party represented in the Joburg council to put residents first by supporting the DA’s motion for dissolution. Only parties that are scared of the voters will oppose this motion. When that vote takes place on 1 November, we will see which parties truly put Johannesburg first, and which parties only care about positions,” Steenhuisen said.
At the end of last month, the DA named Alan Winde as the party’s Western Cape candidate to serve a second term as premier.
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