(Special for CAFS) South Africa’s main opposition reveals candidates for major cities in local government elections

CAPE TOWN, August 24 — South Africa’s largest opposition party Democratic Alliance (DA) on Monday announced its mayoral candidates for five major cities in the local government elections, which it identified as “major battlegrounds.”
These five cities are metropolitan municipalities, namely, Cape Town, the legislative capital, Johannesburg, the economic hub, the automotive industry hub of Nelson Mandela Bay, as well as Tshwane, which hosts the administrative capital Pretoria, and Ekurhuleni, home to the largest and busiest airport in Africa — OR Tambo International Airport.
DA Leader John Steenhuisen announced candidates in Nelson Mandela Bay, saying it has spent an “entire year” on its candidate selection process. All five candidates were present at the event.
The party selected Randall Williams and Nqaba Bhanga, mayors of Tshwane and Nelson Mandela Bay, respectively, to campaign for the reelection in the next five years, while picking member of the parliament Geordin Hill-Lewis to run for Cape Town’s mayor, instead of the current mayor Dan Plato.
DA currently governs Western Cape Province and 27 municipalities, including the country’s legislative capital, Cape Town and City of Tshwane that contains South Africa’s administrative capital Pretoria.
The local government elections, which will elect leadership at metropolitan, district and local levels, are scheduled to take place on Oct. 27. The elections could be postponed after the national electoral commission said it agreed to adopt a report which recommended it to approach the court to seek an order for the deferral of the elections to a date not later than February 2022, as it was not likely that October’s elections would be free and fair amid COVID-19 pandemic. (Xinhua)