JOHANNESBURG — The race to run South Africa's biggest city has turned personal, with ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba refusing to debate Democratic Alliance candidate Helen Zille and branding her a “habitual liar” ahead of the November 4 municipal elections.
Asked whether he would debate Zille, Mashaba said it would not be worth his time. “I'm going to be wasting my time talking to someone that I know is going to lie in front of me. She's a habitual liar, and she lies with a straight face,” he said, in remarks reported across South African media on Wednesday.
Zille, a former DA leader who previously served as Johannesburg's mayor in an earlier era of her career, has hit back by attacking Mashaba's own record in the mayor's office between 2016 and 2019, arguing that he governed as “the EFF's mayor,” spent more time conferring with the EFF caucus than with his own party, and adopted its talking points on service delivery.
The clash comes as parties intensify campaigning nationwide, with service delivery, unemployment, corruption and control of the major cities emerging as the defining battlegrounds. President Cyril Ramaphosa is campaigning to rebuild ANC support after the party lost its parliamentary majority in 2024, while the DA campaigns on financial discipline and restoring basic services — and in Johannesburg, on fixing deteriorating infrastructure and the city's finances.
