Zille blocked? Moya replaced? – What leadership change we may see in Joburg, Tshwane, and Ekurhuleni
· Citizen
As results from the 2026 Local Government Elections began to show that ActionSA would be a kingmaker in Gauteng metros, National Chairperson Michael Beaumont picked up the phone and called a familiar face.
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The former DA staff member reportedly met his now political rival, not to discuss coalition conditions but possible reconciliation.
“My meeting with the DA was not really to discuss the coalition but to say, let’s put the past behind us and focus on the future,” he told News24.
It was not the only meeting Beaumont made – he has reportedly also met with the ANC about continuing their partnership in the province’s metros – but it may be a stepping stone to a new coalition to govern some of the most important cities in the country.
ActionSA emerged from this year’s polls as the fifth-largest party in the country, with more than 1.6 million votes. More than 1.1 million of those came from Gauteng, and nearly all of it came from the province’s metros.
Those numbers could swing things in Johannesburg, Tshwane, and Ekurhuleni, where no single party got an outright majority.
The easiest, and seemingly most palatable, route to power for the ANC, DA, and ActionSA appears to be working with one of the other two, excluding the third.
ActionSA already work in a partnership with the ANC in the province, which has seen Nasiphi Moya installed as Tshwane mayor.
The DA works with the ANC nationally and has openly spoken of possibly bringing that agreement to a local government level.
But tensions between ActionSA and the DA have persisted for several years, dating back to Mashaba and Beaumont’s departure from the DA seven years ago and the thorny coalition they attempted after the 2021 elections.
Now, with a stronger position, ActionSA will reportedly walk into coalition talks this week with an eye to retain its mayorship in Tshwane and “block Helen Zille” from being mayor in Johannesburg.
Who will be mayor in Johannesburg?
“ActionSA will keep the DA out of Jozi if they insist on Helen. She is not honest; she says one thing to you today and stabs you in the back the next,” an ActionSA source told the Sunday Times.
ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba has made no secret of his desire to be mayor of Johannesburg again, but also rubbished the claims by the source.
ANC Chief Whip Mdumiseni Ntuli did not rule out a coalition with the DA but said it had been bruised by DA mayoral leader Helen Zille’s campaign against it in Joburg and suggested it had left a bad taste in many leaders’ mouths.
The DA’s campaign for Zille to be mayor was rumoured to have cost “many, many millions” and got them 34.81% of the votes. It is understood that the party will be hardline on her election as part of its coalition negotiations.
What about Tshwane?
“We will never sacrifice Nasiphi [Moya] in Tshwane. She’s given us our biggest numbers yet, so we would rather let go of Ekurhuleni and Joburg,” the Sunday Times source added. Claims that Mashaba distanced himself from on social media.
Moya’s election to mayor in 2024 was touted by many as a strong reason behind ActionSA’s success in the province, and particularly their increase in Tshwane from 8.64% in 2021 to 22.07% in this election.
While ActionSA will likely draw a red line on her remaining mayor in their coalition discussions, EFF leader Julius Malema predicted that this may collide with Mashaba’s ambitions.
“No negotiation is going to allow ActionSA to govern two metros. Now they are confronting a predicament to choose [Tshwane mayor] Nasiphi [Moya]- that they used to garner support in Tshwane and projected her as a champion of service delivery- and [Herman] Mashaba. One must live, and the other must die. There is going to be a problem.
“Mashaba will not accept [not being mayor], and Helen [Zille] will not accept that Mashaba must be mayor and she is compromised. She is not going to agree to that”
ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula also weighed in, claiming that “Mashaba and ActionSA have managed to convince a whole lot of people that Moya is the best thing that has actually been invented since sliced bread”, without credit for their partners in the city.
“They’ve sold this thing to South Africans, and South Africans believe that whether that is true or not is to be seen over time, factually.
“The ANC participates in that coalition, but the ANC is viewed as a flop. People are saying Nasiphi is the best, and all of you are just garbage.”
ANC to keep Ekurhuleni?
Mbalula also pointed out that the ANC has implemented several services in Ekurhuleni townships but still bled votes to ActionSA.
Before the 2026 poll, Ekurhuleni was governed by a minority coalition led by the ANC, and they will likely want to keep it that way after.
The ANC in recent months has seemingly shifted coalition stances to be more accepting of being a powerful opposition and collaborator in council that can pull strings, but with the DA and ActionSA’s eye more on the mayoral chains of Johannesburg and Tshwane, we could see the ANC have the Ekurhuleni mayorship in a coalition agreement.
A DA-ActionSA coalition here would almost certainly see the DA take the mayoral chain through Khathutshelo Rasilingwane, with the party clear that it believes the party which brings the most votes should have the most prominent positions.
“One of the principles that we stood up for quite firmly was this idea of proportionality. The allocation of seats in the government should be proportionate to the number of seats that you bring to the government,” DA leader Geordin Hill-Lewis said of coalitions.
The ANC shares this stance, and it, too, leads ActionSA in the metro. It could keep Nkosindiphile Xhakaza as mayor.
Coalition discussions are set to run over the next two weeks, with Mbalula pleading that services continue to run while governments are formed.