DA leader and Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has hailed the DA’s shock by-election victory in Emfuleni in Gauteng as a watershed moment for both the party and South African politics.
Speaking at a voter registration event in Tshwane on Saturday, Hill-Lewis celebrated the DA’s capture of Ward 28 in Evaton, a township ward in Emfuleni Local Municipality previously held by the ANC.
The DA’s candidate, Maki Emily Tshabalala, won the ward with 32.08% of the vote, overturning an ANC stronghold that secured 50.90% in the 2021 municipal elections. The voter turnout was 35.79%.
“This is a community where we once got 1% of the vote. Now we’ve won it from the ANC,” Hill-Lewis told supporters.
“This week every South African heard the names Emfuleni, Evaton and Maki Tshabalala. Remember those names. They will go down in history as a historic moment for our country and for our party.”
Hill-Lewis said the result had sent shockwaves through political circles and was a major blow to the ANC in one of its traditional strongholds.
“Some political commentators who usually give us such a hard time called it ‘a truly sensational shift in South African politics’,” he said.
He linked the victory to the ANC’s decision to remove Emfuleni mayor Sipho Radebe on Friday, describing the move as a panic reaction to the by-election defeat.
“We must ask why the ANC only fired that mayor now. For years Emfuleni has been one of the worst-governed municipalities in the country.”
Calling on voters to join what he described as a growing “blue wave”, Hill-Lewis said the Emfuleni result demonstrated that political change was possible in communities long regarded as ANC strongholds.
“If change can happen in Evaton and Emfuleni, it can happen right next door in Orange Farm and Soweto too,” he said.
“If we can change Evaton and Jozi, we can bring change in Tshwane too.”
Hill-Lewis also used the occasion to renew the DA’s campaign to return former Tshwane mayor Cilliers Brink to office.
“The solution for Tshwane is to bring Cilliers Brink back as mayor to fix the roads of Tshwane — literally,” he said.
He argued that elections should be judged on service delivery rather than political rhetoric.
“This election is not about slogans, posters or speeches. It’s about whether your streetlight works when your child walks home. It’s about fixing the pothole outside your house before it bursts another tyre. It’s about water coming out of your tap so you aren’t having to rely on water tankers while connected people get rich.”
Hill-Lewis also criticised coalition instability, saying South Africans had come to associate coalitions with political infighting rather than governance.
“Coalition chaos means residents reporting broken streetlights and nothing happens. Streets remain dark and danger becomes normal.”
He urged eligible voters to register ahead of the local government elections, saying the Emfuleni result showed that every vote could make a difference.
TimesLIVE
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