Africa-Press – South-Africa. Belinda Kayser-Echeozonjoku was appointed the new leader of the DA’s Joburg council caucus after her closest competitor, Mpho Phalatse, pulled out of the race at the last minute.
Kayser-Echeozonjoku’s election was made easy when Phalatse, the former Joburg mayor, dropped out of the race at the weekend.
Some DA members saw Phalatse’s withdrawal as her signalling her intention to contest the provincial leadership position against reigning leader Solly Msimanga at the provincial conference, which is expected to take place in August.
Kayser-Echeozonjoku is a councillor for Ward 74.
The DA Joburg caucus has faced a politically testing period since the 2021 municipal elections.
The party has had to contend with running the city while dealing with several motions of no confidence brought against Phalatse while she was mayor.
The party has also had to deal with negotiations for coalitions with its fellow Joburg council members, who have sometimes disagreed with the DA’s decisions.
The most contentious of these decisions was whether the party should work with the EFF and the Patriotic Alliance.
Meanwhile, the DA national leadership placed the regional structure under administration in May 2022 due to concerns over the party’s performance in the municipal elections.
The DA Joburg region faces tough competition from new entrant ActionSA, which many electioneering monitoring experts believe has eaten into the party’s support base in the metro.
ActionSA continues to be a threat against the DA, with the party facing fierce competition in by-elections held in 2022 and 2023.
Thomas Walters, a DA MP, was appointed administrator of the Joburg region, and was expected to take the party’s political leaders at the branch level to task on improving their political performance.
Walters told News24 that the Joburg region was out of administration and headed towards electing its regional leadership.
“People know what they need to do politically in the region. We have now put measures in place to solve disputes and [we’ve] created a war room. I don’t think we should see the DA as having had a bad election in 2021. But we felt Joburg, given its strategic importance, we need to do better,” Walters said.
Kayser-Echeozonjoku is expected to contest with three other candidates for Johannesburg’s regional leadership.
DA Joburg members said that Phalatse has also been spoken about as a possible candidate.
Other candidates include Darran Bergman, who serves as a Member of Parliament, and Nicola du Plessis, a member of the Gauteng provincial legislature.
The Joburg regional election general meeting is expected to take place in July.
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