The DA’s Gauteng hope, Solly Msimanga on the campaign trail

Solly Msimanga stood in the tunnel at Johannesburg’s Rand Stadium and bowed his head.

Democratic Alliance provincial leader John Moodey had just told the thousands of supporters at the party’s national manifesto launch, and voters watching across the country, that they could save South Africa by electing the party in Gauteng.

A staffer massaged Msimanga’s shoulders. He raised his head and walked onto the field.



The DA has long held ambitions to govern Gauteng. As the most populated province with the largest economy, politics here reverberate across the country. Power in Gauteng would give the DA the chance to stand toe-to-toe with the ANC as an equal in the national arena and graduate from its role as a noisy opposition party with its power concentrated in the Western Cape.

The dream became feasible in 2016 and party leader Mmusi Maimane started his speech at Saturday’s manifesto launch with a message for the doubters.

“We said we’d be in government in Johannesburg. They said we couldn’t do it. We said we’d be in government in Tshwane. They said we couldn’t do it.”

DA-led coalitions were elected in both cities after the 2016 local government elections.

“We did it before, and we’ll do it again,” continued Maimane. The 8 May general elections are less than three months away.

Msimanga didn’t plan to run as the DA’s premier candidate in Gauteng. He led a “very bruising” 2016 campaign in Tshwane and as mayor was busy establishing the party’s first administration in the city.

Senior party members approached him in the week before nominations closed in 2018 and encouraged him to run. They said he was the best candidate due to his record as Tshwane mayor, his public profile and his polling numbers.

“It was a case of, ‘do you do it, don’t you do it?’ And if you don’t do it, would you be able to live with yourself if the party doesn't do well?” he said during an interview at the DA’s national office, which was moved from Cape Town to Johannesburg in 2018 – a reflection of the party’s ambitions.

Msimanga was expected to support his friend Makashule Gana’s campaign. The Gauteng MPL had announced his candidacy early and Msimanga said he wouldn’t stand against him. Gana was quoted as saying he felt betrayed when Msimanga entered the race.

“I’m not going to lie, it was very difficult, but at the same time you have to ask: is this about personal issues or is this about what is for the greater good of the organisation that we both belong to?” said Msimanga.

At the DA manifesto launch, Gana said he’s willing to comment on the campaign but not the individuals involved. Msimanga said the pair still talk regularly and are working together.

Msimanga, 38, was born in Atteridgeville and worked at the Liberian and American embassies and the NGO Project Literacy before joining the DA. He worked in the party’s marketing and messaging department, served as a councillor in Tshwane and was elected to the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL) in 2014.

He shot to prominence as the DA’s mayoral candidate in Tshwane during the 2016 campaign. He was young, confident and ambitious, genial but with a directness that implied capability. The local ANC was in a shambles and the DA took 43% of the vote to the ANC’s 41%.

He became mayor with the support of the DA’s smaller coalition partners and the EFF, which won 11% of the vote. The DA’s Herman Mashaba followed the same path in Johannesburg, but while the EFF asked the DA to replace Mashaba, prone to gaffes and conservative economics, party leader Julius Malema said Msimanga was a “genuine human being” who “chose the wrong party”. The praise didn’t last.

Msimanga is quick to turn any critical conversation back to his achievements as Tshwane mayor. The talking points: the DA-led government turned a R2-billion deficit into a surplus, uncovered R1.5-billion wasted by the ANC, removed 900 political appointees from the mayor’s office, sold the mayoral mansion, reformed the expanded public works programme to reduce political patronage and attracted R3.8-billion in investments.

“There are different things that I would look for in terms of the appointments that I made. There are different things that I would look for in terms of the coalition arrangements. There are different things that I would actually look for in terms of the co-operation between the local, provincial and national government,” he reflected.

He resigned as Tshwane mayor in January after almost two-and-a-half years in the job. Msimanga denied he was forced by the DA to resign to avoid his troubles in Tshwane spilling over to his campaign for premier.

“Whether Solly Msimanga was pushed or not? Not. Solly Msimanga was not pushed,” he said.

The regional ANC was making it difficult for him to campaign as premier while fulfilling his mayoral duties, he said. The DA’s Western Cape Premier, Helen Zille, was able to balance government and campaign duties in the past because the party had an outright majority in her administrations, he argues.

“Do I continue these half-baked campaigns where I’m drawn back every time [to Tshwane] or do you focus on going with the campaign?” he asked himself. He thought he could best serve Tshwane citizens if the DA ran the province.

But party leaders had reason to worry. Msimanga’s administration was embarrassed after it was revealed his chief of staff, Marietta Aucamp, and executive head in the mayor’s private office, Stefan de Villiers, both lacked the required qualifications for their posts.

Both were trusted DA staffers and both are white, reigniting criticism that the party privileges white people, even when they aren’t qualified.

“I’ll take full responsibility for the appointment of Ms Aucamp. I should have played a much bigger oversight role,” said Msimanga. He claimed he was only involved in two appointments and should have verified Aucamp’s qualifications.

The second appointment had a much greater impact. When Msimanga appointed Moeketsi Mosola as city manager in 2017, he called him “fresh, new and dynamic thinking” and defended him from ANC criticism.

“At the point where I actually sat and interviewed Mr Mosola, he came across as somebody brilliant, somebody who shared the passion that I had, somebody who wanted to see the change that I wanted to see and I was sold to that idea.”

Things started going wrong, he said, when Mosola wasn’t available when needed. Then there was GladAfrica. Tshwane had R10-billion worth of projects on its books from 2015/16 that were in various states of non-completion or disarray.

Mosola recommended appointing a range of project management companies to resolve outstanding projects.

“At no point was a name of a company mentioned. Remember, you’re adopting a panel. You’re not adopting a singular company,” said Msimanga, denying he had any knowledge of what had happened next.

Mosola appointed a single company – GladAfrica – and the City of Tshwane was embroiled in a R12-billion corruption scandal (Msimanga said the figure was invented by the ANC). His public feud with Mosola tainted his mayorship until he resigned.

A forensic investigation and the Auditor General found the contract was irregular but Msimanga’s efforts to act against Mosola were repeatedly blocked in council by the ANC and EFF. They teamed up to try to remove Msimanga through multiple attempts at no-confidence motions.

New Tshwane mayor Stevens Mokgalapa on Monday announced that the GladAfrica contract would be cancelled after Mosola finally conceded it was irregular. The company has reportedly been paid around R317-million.

While the scandals hung over his administration, Msimanga denied that the appointments of Mosola and Aucamp showed poor judgement. He said he confronted the issues head-on and that the DA is held to a higher standard than other parties.

“I have a saying: The DA is judged against perfection. The EFF is judged against chaos. The ANC is judged against how corrupt or less corrupt the next department is.”

Mpho Vilikazi, 30, doesn’t know Msimanga but has already judged him. The former mayor arrived in a BMW X5 at Park Station last Friday and posed for photos with a dozen party activists ready to campaign in Johannesburg.

DA Gauteng premier candidate and former Tshwane mayor Solly Msimanga campaigned in Johannesburg on 22 February 2019. Photo: Greg Nicolson