This grandmother thinks she can fix the richest city in Africa

The car, known as a “gusheshe”, became synonymous with the hippie culture that emerged from the mostly impoverished slums where black people were forced to live under apartheid.

But sitting atop the gusheshe (pronounced GOU-shay-shay) was someone South Africans would hardly associate with black culture.

It was about Helen Zille75, a white grandmother who has been criticized for her stances on race, including past statements suggesting that colonialism had its benefits, denouncing affirmative action in South Africa and adopting American right-wing terms such as “wokeness”.

But as he campaigns to lead Johannesburg, South Africa’s largest city, ahead of Wednesday’s election, Zille is betting that race no longer guides the decisions of many South Africans at the polls.

Instead, he argues, South Africans are more concerned about issues that affect quality of life, such as water scarcity, poor road conditions and public safety.

And his direct and energetic style, he says, is best suited to revive the economy of Africa’s richest city.

With an overwhelming personality and a social media presence that resembles Generation Z more than the baby boom generation, Zille has injected excitement, and some controversy, into the typically bland and predictable ritual of South African election campaigns.

“A lot of people don’t like me,” Zille, the Democratic Alliance (AD) mayoral candidate, said in an interview.

“No problem. They don’t even have to sympathize with the AD. “It is enough that they like Johannesburg for them to support us with their vote.”

Zille’s strategy has put her ahead in the Johannesburg polls, the biggest prize in an election in which millions of voters are expected to elect mayors and councilors across the country.

According to analysts, the local elections could have important repercussions on the national political landscape.

The African National Congress (ANC), Nelson Mandela’s party that led South Africa out of apartheid, has suffered a sharp electoral decline.

In the country’s last two major elections, less than half of South African voters chose the ANC, an unprecedented feat for the party since it came to power after the end of apartheid in 1994.

Polls and analysts suggest an even greater decline is coming in this election, with the ANC expected to be overtaken as the largest party in most of South Africa’s eight major metropolitan cities.

(It is currently the largest party in six of them.)

According to experts, the weakening of the ANC could deepen the party’s infighting and intensify tensions in the ANC-led national government coalition.

The party could also be forced to moderate its political ambitions and accede to some of its rivals’ demands.

Most South African metropolitan areas are not expected to have clear winners in the elections, raising fears among some analysts that parties will form unstable governing coalitions that make life difficult for ordinary South Africans.

“I am very pessimistic about the future of this country,” said Bheki Mngomezulu, a political science professor at Nelson Mandela University.

Historically, the ANC had not announced mayoral candidates before elections, but had instead used its image to attract voters.

This year, faced with the possible threat posed by Zille’s popularity, the ANC broke with tradition and announced three finalists for mayor of Johannesburg, a sprawling city of almost 5 million inhabitants.

But the party failed in that attempt when its leadership did not formally present the name of one of the finalists, Frank Chikane, to the electoral commission.

This means that he does not currently meet the requirements to be mayor.

The ANC has resorted to Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa’s president and party leader, in a bid to defy gloomy predictions about his election performance. Ramaphosa is the most respected figure in the party.

Ramaphosa has been crisscrossing the country trying to persuade voters to continue supporting the party.

Last month, he made his way through crowds in Soweto township, speaking to voters complaining about a lack of water, electricity and jobs.

“When you take stock, when you look at the balance sheet, there are more positives than negatives,” Ramaphosa told a crowd gathered on the street, referring to the ANC’s governing record.

In South Africa, voters elect parties that then form coalitions to elect the mayor.

Around 80 parties compete in Johannesburg. However, Zille is widely ahead of the other candidates in the polls, although he has not yet reached the 50% necessary to be directly elected mayor.

His campaign has focused excessively on making the ANC’s governing failures go viral.

He has published videos on social networks in which he appears snorkeling in a huge sinkhole full of water due to a broken pipe; rowing a rubber boat through the flooded streets of Soweto; and directing traffic at a broken traffic light.

She made an unannounced “supervision” visit to an abandoned and dilapidated municipal building, and posted a shocking video of her being chased by security guards.

Shortly before last month’s political rally, where she rode in the back of the convertible, she posted a video showing her skidding in a sports car, raising smoke and leaving tire marks.

Spinning is a popular activity in the slums of South Africa.

“Others will tell you stories,” he said, looking into the camera.

“We will take action.”

The comments section was filled with emojis of laughter, applause, flames and praise for “Gogo Helen.” (Gogo is the term used for grandmother in African American communities.)

“You know what? Take my vote!” one commenter wrote.

However, critics have accused Zille of ingratiating himself to black communities by resorting to caricatures and stereotypes.

Some have called his moves publicity stunts that avoid the hard work of engaging black voters.

For his part, Dada Morero, current mayor of Johannesburg and member of the ANC, has criticized the DA for promoting inequalities in the cities it has governed and has questioned Zille’s commitment to Johannesburg.

“This sudden DA interest in Johannesburg has nothing to do with residents; it has to do with politics,” he told a South African media outlet in response to one of Zille’s viral social media posts.

Most public polls put Zille below 40% of the vote, a result that could make it difficult for her to form a coalition of parties to become the next mayor of Johannesburg.

However, some analysts claim that his path to office could involve a coalition with the ANC, a party with which the DA already collaborates in the national government.