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Kenny Kunene, Patriotic Alliance Deputy President.
Patriotic Alliance’s (PA) deputy president and mayoral candidate for Johannesburg, Kenny Kunene says he is unfazed by the entry of the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) Helen Zille and ActionSA President Herman Mashaba in the metro’s mayoral race.
WATCH | PA Deputy President Kenny Kunene, a mayoral candidate for the City of Johannesburg, says he has what it takes to be the city’s mayor. Despite the challenges Johannesburg faces, Kunene believes he knows what must be done to turn the country’s richest city around. pic.twitter.com/9lQ9DCNXxq
— SABC News (@SABCNews) February 5, 2026
Patriotic Alliance Deputy President Kenny Kunene, who is also mayoral candidate for the City of Johannesburg, says he is the right person to lead the city. Kunene says he knows what needs to be done to turn the country’s richest city around.
— SABC News (@SABCNews) February 5, 2026
He was speaking to the SABC News on the sidelines of his party’s engagement session with its sitting councillors and concillor-candidates in Johannesburg, for the November local elections.
Zille was a mayor of Cape Town between 2006 and 2009 while Mashaba led Johannesburg between 2016 and 2019.
Kunene says people who have failed to change the living conditions of people where they led in the past doesn’t worry him.
“Both Helen Zille and Herman Mashaba are non-starters. They have both been mayors before and they failed. Helen Zille was Premier of the Western Cape for 10 years and she failed. The Western Cape has not progressed except in affluent areas, so she will only be a mayor for affluent communities. Alexandra, Diepsloot, Soweto, Orange Farm and Ivory Park will suffer. Johannesburg needs someone who lives here and understands the city. We have informal settlements, today because of Mashaba. He made poor decisions as mayor, including insourcing security guards without allocating a budget, simply to appease the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF). I am not worried about the two of them, they are politically finished,” says Kunene.
RELATED VIDEO | [EXCLUSIVE] Patriotic Alliance’s Kenny Kunene speaks to SABC on his mayoral campaign
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeSpZZwNYw0
