DA stalwart faces off against ActionSA reality star in Ekurhuleni

Ekurhuleni will be one of the most tightly contested metros in the 4 November local government elections. So far, only the DA and ActionSA have nominated mayoral candidates. We speak to both.

In the Gauteng metros, the lead-up to the 4 November local government elections has largely focused on Johannesburg, where the DA’s Helen Zille has used social media to highlight the ANC-led coalition’s governance failures.

In Ekurhuleni, meanwhile, the race has been heating up. So far, the DA and ActionSA have put forward their mayoral candidates: Khathutshelo Rasilingwane and Xolani Khumalo, respectively.

The ANC, whose Nkosindiphile Xhakaza holds the mayoral chains, is still weighing up its options, while the EFF and MK party have also not announced candidates.

In 2021, the ANC won 38.19%, followed by the DA with 28.72%, EFF with 13.47% and ActionSA with 6.6%.

With the ANC expected to struggle in the elections and the DA predicting it will gain a greater share of the vote, the mayoral chains might once again change hands in Ekurhuleni, which has a population of more than four million people.

We spoke to the DA and ActionSA candidates.

While both candidates draw on personal experiences rooted in Tembisa, they differ in how they believe Ekurhuleni should be governed.

Khathutshelo Rasilingwane
The DA’s Rasilingwane was born in Limpopo and moved to Gauteng as a child following her father’s death, later growing up in an informal settlement in Tembisa. She argues that her lived experience and political training give her a clear understanding of what residents expect from the metro.

She holds qualifications in marketing management and business administration from the University of the Witwatersrand. Her political identity is closely tied to her upbringing in an informal settlement, an experience she says shaped her focus on service delivery and governance.

“I feel that leaders use our pain to sway us into voting in a certain direction,” she said, adding that she didn’t feel represented by the ANC.

“I’d like to show people that you can be a black person, you can be from an informal settlement and decide otherwise.”

She said she was inspired to join the DA by a counsellor from that party who showed effort and care in addressing the issues her community faced.

As a member of the DA since 2010, she has spent nearly a decade within Ekurhuleni’s council structures, including serving as a councillor and briefly as MMC for community safety. She is currently an MPL in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature.