Late last month I sat down with Helen Zille to discuss Johannesburg and also South Africa’s broader prospects. Below are some of the key points that stood out for me from our conversation.

Voters overtaking the ANC

When I asked, given how fast South Africa was changing, whether Ms Zille felt the African National Congress (ANC) was being left behind, she said: “Absolutely. The voters [are] overtaking the ANC. The ANC is stuck in an archaic internal battle around the National Democratic Revolution…And the voters have lost [interest in such ideological projects] [a] long time ago…and said, no, we are going forward. We want a country that works.”

The start of a real democracy

On why the Democratic Alliance (DA) has not been historically dominant in Johannesburg Ms Zille said: “Demography is often destiny. But I think that is changing in Johannesburg and very rapidly, because as people see that there's no water in their taps, and even when there isn't loadshedding, lights don't come back on, when they see potholes in the streets that turn into craters and hundreds of traffic lights not working and refuse strewn about everywhere…so [people start thinking] don't you think we should have a local government that will just do what it's supposed to do in terms of basic services, and then they start thinking, well, it doesn't matter if the cat is black, white or ginger, as long as it catches the mouse. And when that thinking starts sitting in, you can have a real democracy where people start voting on the issues that matter.”

Fixing Johannesburg

When I pressed her on how to fix Johannesburg Ms Zille told me: “There are two things that you need to fix the city. You need a budget that is focused on the priorities, and you need competent people to implement the plan and achieve results on time and within budget. That's what you need. It's a very simple formula. [But] it's extraordinarily difficult to achieve.”

Tactical voting

On smaller parties her advice was: “If [voters] spread their votes between all kinds of tiny little parties, they are going to get the ANC back in government, because inevitably, as tiny parties, however they start out, they gravitate to the ANC because the ANC is prepared to make concessions and offer inducements that we are not prepared to do. So, if people want [better] governance, they have to vote for it.”

On Johannesburg specifically she said: “[Voters] don't have to like me. They don't even have to like the DA. They just have to love Joburg enough to vote for a government that can fix it.”

Feeding crocodiles

On doing coalition deals with the Economic Freedom Fighters Ms Zille’s advice was: “Once you start having to feed the crocodile you're not going to stop doing that because you can't feed steaks to a crocodile in the hope that it will slowly become a vegetarian. It does not work like that.”

Policing powers

On which powers she wished the DA had in order to better serve the interests of South Africans Ms Zille stressed policing, saying: “Now we are going to fight in the Western Cape, a court case that will take us all the way to the Constitutional Court on the devolution of policing powers. We want those powers to be devolved to the [Cape Town] metro and to the province, and we believe that if that happens, then the police will be under the direct line of command of [our] governments and we will be able to have investigative powers.”

Should the DA case succeed Ms Zille went on to say that: “We'll be able to have crime intelligence powers, and all the powers that you really need to get ahead of gangsterism, of drugs and of crime. And that's why we want that devolution of policing powers. We think it's irrational that the minister is refusing to grant us that devolution. He could literally put a signature on a piece of paper, do it.”

Race grifters and other nonsenses

On the manufactured outrage she had been subjected to throughout much of her political career Ms Zille told me: “I'm a classical liberal. I believe in the primacy of the individual. I believe in the rule of law and due process under a constitution. I believe in non-racialism. I believe in equality of opportunity and the role of the state in achieving equality of opportunity. I believe in all those things. I was raised believing in them. I believed in them all through my education at university.” 

She then went on to say that: “When the Marxists tried to persuade me of a different point of view I never bought into that, and I've held that view through critical race theory. I've taken on the race grifters and all the people who believe in race essentialism and then gender essentialism and all of those other nonsenses. I believe that you judge individuals according to who they are, the quality of their character, and not the other externalities.”