DA Joburg mayoral candidate Helen Zille has released another attention-grabbing campaign video.
This time scaling buildings like Spider-Man to drive home her message that a DA government would enforce by-laws and bring order back to Joburg.
The video, released on Monday, 13 July, takes aim at the city’s failure to protect buildings.
“Today, I’m abseiling down a building to show you how easy to hijack a building in central Joburg,” she stated.
She relates a story of an owner who abandons his building because of poor services. The building gets hijacked by criminals who force tenants to pay rent to them.
Zille said because the criminals and syndicates don’t pay rates, the services are locked out.
“Things go from bad to worse until there are tragedies like Usindiso fire,” she said.
The harrowing fire that engulfed the Usindiso Building at the corner of Albert and Delvers Streets in Marshalltown, Joburg, on 31 August 2023, left 77 people dead.
Zille is then seen knocking on the window of one of the tenants and asks about water pressure in their building.
The man responds: “Well, there is none here.”
Zille assures the man that when she is a mayor, she will change everything.
She emphasised that hijacked buildings don’t happen overnight. She said they are carefully orchestrated.
Daily Sun reported in April how the city lost access to all its automated speed cameras in December 2025 when the JMPD’s contract with service provider Syntell lapsed. The company removed all its equipment, and no replacement has been appointed, leaving the city’s roads effectively unmonitored for over six months. The shutdown has cost Joburg an estimated R17 million in lost fine revenue, with JMPD forced back to handwritten fines. The city previously generated about R50 million annually from speed enforcement alone.
Zille described the situation as “unbelievable.” “There is no management of anything, but even if there were, there is now no money to do anything about anything. The City has been run into the ground,” she said.
The stunt is the latest in a series of viral campaign moments from Zille, who previously posted a TikTok video of herself directing traffic at a Joburg intersection where robots were out. Her campaign has been the most visible of the mayoral contenders so far, using creative content to highlight the city’s service delivery failures.
The race for Joburg is increasingly crowded. The ANC is finalising its candidate from a shortlist that includes current mayor Dada Morero, deputy mayor Loyiso Masuku, Frank Chikane, Nomoya Mnisi, and Jabu Moleketi. Bosa has named co-founder Nobuntu Hlazo-Webster, the IFP has put forward Mlungisi Mabaso, and activist Ntsiki Mazwai is running under the Land Party banner. ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba remains a key contender, while the MK Party is still to announce its candidate.
With elections on 4 November, Joburg voters face one of the most competitive fields in recent memory.
