Latest / Drive with John Perlman / Rise Mzansi’s Performance in the 2026 Municipal Elections

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Rise Mzansi’s Performance in the 2026 Municipal Elections · Drive with John Perlman

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: From local issues to the bigger picture.
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  Speaker 2: Follow the local government elections on 702 Drive with John Perlman. Well,
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: as we go through the day here, and I'm sure
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  Speaker 2: it will be the case later with Stephen Curtis and
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: even deeper into the evening with Aubrey Massango, there will
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  Speaker 2: be an opportunity to engage with different political parties, what
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  Speaker 2: they're making of the results so far. Let's get the
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  Speaker 2: perspective then of Rise Mzansi. Magashule Gana is Raizem Zanzi's
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  Speaker 2: chief organizer, also caucus whip down in parliament in Cape Town. Mr. Gana,
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  Speaker 2: welcome and thanks very much for your time. Just looking
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  Speaker 2: at your Gauteng performance, 0.6% of the votes so far
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  Speaker 2: in Kuraleni, 0.5% in Tswane, significantly better in Joburg, 2.26%.
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  Speaker 2: Any thoughts as to why that might be? Obviously, you'd
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  Speaker 2: like to be doing more like Joburg than you are
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  Speaker 2: in Tswane, but why are the Gauteng's metro swings as
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  Speaker 2: they are?
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  Speaker 1: Thanks very much, John, and good afternoon to the 702 listeners.
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  Speaker 1: So in this particular election, John, we had taken a
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  Speaker 1: tactical decision to contest fewer municipalities, so we only contested
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  Speaker 1: seven municipalities across South Africa. with a bigger focus on Johannesburg,
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  Speaker 1: because we needed to also find ourselves, find where our
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  Speaker 1: biggest strengths are, and that's why you see the numbers
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  Speaker 1: that you see as a head of elections, as an organiser,
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  Speaker 1: they are not surprising, given that we had put in
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  Speaker 1: more efforts in Johannesburg than in Suan and Egruleni. We
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  Speaker 1: did not have a mayoral candidate in Egruleni, and Suan
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  Speaker 1: was the mayoral candidate in Johannesburg, because we wanted to
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  Speaker 1: to focus our energies, but also to have a base
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  Speaker 1: as we build towards 2029. So the numbers for me,
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  Speaker 1: it says the people have spoken, we now see which
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  Speaker 1: of the areas or which communities RISE Mzansi is doing well,
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  Speaker 1: and so they are very encouraging.
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  Speaker 2: Some people might say this is an unprecedented opportunity in
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  Speaker 2: South Africa because there is, I don't know what analogy
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  Speaker 2: to use, but there's a massive cake that has not
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  Speaker 2: been particularly well looked after or protected, i.e. the share
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  Speaker 2: of the voting population that the ANC has enjoyed over decades.
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  Speaker 2: Are you not, though, a little disappointed that you haven't
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  Speaker 2: got a bigger slice of that cake? Because you positioned
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  Speaker 2: yourself as a much better alternative that was nevertheless, in
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  Speaker 2: your view, a much more effectively pro-poor party. You arguably
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  Speaker 2: should be batting a lot better than you are, 1%
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  Speaker 2: overall in Gauteng. That's not much of the ANC slice.
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  Speaker 1: There's no element or there's no part of me that's disappointed.
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  Speaker 1: Because I looked at this in terms of how one
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  Speaker 1: focuses the energy, one looking at the resources that I
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  Speaker 1: had at my disposal. And then you're like, all right,
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  Speaker 1: given the kind of emerging talent that we have, especially
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  Speaker 1: coming out of housing, it bodes well for us going
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  Speaker 1: into the 2029 elections. What's guaranteed is that Rice and
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  Speaker 1: Zanzi is going to be part of council. in Johannesburg,
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  Speaker 1: that one, because we had focused a lot of energies
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  Speaker 1: on that. And if there are conversations around the coalitions,
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  Speaker 1: obviously we will not initiate them because we are not,
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  Speaker 1: we didn't receive the BHA. We'll wait for the parties
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  Speaker 1: to then call us and then we are going to
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  Speaker 1: give in terms of our view. But at the center
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  Speaker 1: of those coalition discussions must be the interest of the
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  Speaker 1: residents of Johannesburg, must be about ensuring that refuse is collected,
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  Speaker 1: water reaches the people, electricity is not interrupted, and the
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  Speaker 1: general cleanliness of Johannesburg is prioritized. So we are not
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  Speaker 1: chasing positions. We are there to serve the people of Johannesburg.
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  Speaker 2: Well, you say you're not chasing positions, and, you know,
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  Speaker 2: some voters may say, well, that's very noble and very honorable,
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  Speaker 2: but actually there's another point of view borne out by
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  Speaker 2: the hugely effective role that your party leader, Songhez Ozibi,
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  Speaker 2: has played. because he's the chair of SCOPA, and that
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  Speaker 2: is not in any way diminishing the abilities he brings
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  Speaker 2: to the position. But his impact is due largely to
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  Speaker 2: that position. I mean, shouldn't you be chasing positions?
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  Speaker 1: So what I'm talking about, usually people, when they get
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  Speaker 1: into coalition, they start demanding to be MMCs, start demanding
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  Speaker 1: to be the speaker, and so forth. So it's not
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  Speaker 1: even when we're negotiating during the GNU negotiating process. We
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  Speaker 1: didn't go there.
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  Speaker 2: No.
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  Speaker 1: There's no one that will say Rais Mzanzi came to
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  Speaker 1: discuss with us and they demanded this minister or that minister.
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  Speaker 1: Because we then have to place the interests of the
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  Speaker 1: municipality first. And if during that course of conversation we
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  Speaker 1: are entrusted with the responsibility, in the same way that
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  Speaker 1: we got entrusted with the responsibility of SCOPA in Parliament,
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  Speaker 1: in the same way that we have been entrusted with
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  Speaker 1: the responsibility of the impeachment committee, then we are going
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  Speaker 1: to serve the residents of Johannesburg to the best of
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  Speaker 1: our ability.
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  Speaker 2: But you yourself, Mr. Garner, made very explicitly the point
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  Speaker 2: you've got lots of talent in your ranks in Gauteng.
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  Speaker 2: Isn't the best way to serve the people of Gauteng
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  Speaker 2: or anywhere else in the country? is to push hard
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  Speaker 2: for you to take up significant positions. It may well
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  Speaker 2: not necessarily be an MMC, but you want to chair committees.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, is Raisa Bzansi not going to suffer in
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  Speaker 2: the long term from perhaps being a little bit too
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  Speaker 2: passive and possibly a bit too nice?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, so maybe just what I was saying was that
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  Speaker 1: I'm not going to go into a coalition conversation and
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  Speaker 1: demand an MMC. We need to look at what is... First,
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  Speaker 1: we need to agree on the program of action and
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  Speaker 1: who amongst the political parties and the leaders that are
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  Speaker 1: there is best to execute on that program of action,
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  Speaker 1: which is ensuring that there's water that goes to the residents,
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  Speaker 1: there's electricity, refuse is being collected, the streets are being cleaned,
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  Speaker 1: there's bylaw enforcement. If we agree on that, we need
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  Speaker 1: to be able, in the same way that you will
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  Speaker 1: have a Wafana Wafana that's made up of... players from
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  Speaker 1: different teams, but you need to get the best possible
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  Speaker 1: combination to get the team to win. And that's what,
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  Speaker 1: in our conversation, we are going to look at to say,
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  Speaker 1: what is the best possible combination to get Johannesburg to win?
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  Speaker 1: And if we can be part of that combination, we
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  Speaker 1: are going to serve and we are going to do best.
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  Speaker 1: Whether we get an MMC position, we get the Champions
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  Speaker 1: League position, people can be guaranteed that the Rijksmuseum Chancellor
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  Speaker 1: will serve the people of Johannesburg very well.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you so much.