Solly to lead DA charge in Gauteng

Ilse de Lange

City of Tshwane mayor Solly Msimanga will lead the Democratic Alliance’s “charge to unseat the failing ANC and bring real change to Gauteng” in next year’s national and provincial elections, DA leader Mmusi Maimane announced yesterday.

He spoke at a media briefing in Johannesburg.

The DA was confident Msimanga would lead a team that would bring the change the people of Gauteng deserved, Maimane said.

Msimanga, 38, was “a man of the Gauteng soil”, having grown up and attended school in Atteridgeville, west of Pretoria.

He lived in a shack with his family when he was growing up and Maimane recounted Msimanga’s memories of walking to school with holes in his shoes.

“Following his election unopposed as Tshwane mayor in 2016, Solly has gained valuable government experience, successfully engaging the challenging party-political dynamics in Tshwane with relative stability and success.

“I have no doubt that Solly has the skills needed to manage the multiple stakeholders in the province, while getting on with the business of the people of Gauteng,” Maimane said.

“Under Solly’s leadership, the City of Tshwane has turned a R2 billion debt inherited from the previous failing ANC government into a R704 million surplus.

“Just last month, Tshwane was ranked the fastest -growing city in Africa, with almost R5 billion in investment already attracted to the nation’s capital,” Maimane said.

With almost 10 million unemployed South Africans, there was no doubt that next year’s election was about jobs. Gauteng was the economic hub that powered South Africa. It [has] the potential to be a thriving centre of economic growth, Maimane said.