‘Thank God for Gogo’: Some Soweto residents say Zille succeeded where ANC promises failed - News24

For almost two years, residents in parts of Soweto lived without electricity, enduring dark streets, disrupted daily routines and repeated promises that never materialised.

For Welcome van Ster, the consequences were life-changing.

Sitting in a wheelchair outside his home in Dobsonville’s Ward 47, Van Ster fights back tears as he recalls the chain of events that led to the amputation of his leg.

He cannot remember the exact date doctors amputated it, but he remembers being discharged from Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital on 24 December so that he could spend Christmas with his children.

Today, he blames the community’s prolonged power outage for what happened to him.

“I do not have a leg because of electricity. If I had electricity, I would have never burnt my foot with boiling water,” he told News24.

News24 visited Dobsonville’s Ward 47, where residents recounted the hardship of living without electricity for close to 15 months after a transformer exploded.

They said political parties and community activists, including members of the ANC, held meetings and promised to help restore power, but little came from those commitments.

For Van Ster, the delay proved devastating.

He said he had walked three streets from his home on Ledwaba Street to his partner’s house to fetch boiling water for a bath ahead of a hospital appointment the following day.

“I tripped and fell when I was exiting the gate of that house, and the boiling water spilt on my foot. I did not think much of the incident and carried on with life,” he said.

Three days later, a wound developed. A clinic referred him to Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital.

Van Ster claims treatment delays allowed the injury to deteriorate.

He said while he waited for medical intervention, the wound became infected and developed a strong smell. He only received urgent attention after another doctor treating him for an unrelated illness wrote a letter to Bara requesting immediate care.

He was admitted and, the following day, his leg was amputated.

What angers him most, he said, is that he continued paying for electricity despite not receiving the service.

“I was up to date with my account and still paid an outstanding debt of R2 860 even while we did not have electricity.”

News24 first learnt of the intervention led by DA mayoral candidate Helen Zille during the publication’s mayoral town hall, The Queue, where she revealed that fundraising efforts had enabled the installation of transformers in Dobsonville, Meadowlands and Snake Park.

According to residents, Zille visited Ward 47 and promised to engage Eskom and assist the community.

Like many others, Van Ster was sceptical.

Years of unmet promises had conditioned residents not to expect much from politicians.

“But to our surprise, on Thursday we saw people from Eskom coming to inspect the transformer that was not working. The following week, workers from Eskom returned and started work to fit the new transformer we now have.”

“If this white woman had probably known about this situation earlier, maybe I’d still be having my leg.

“I thank the DA, I thank the DA ... it is because of it that I now have electricity.”

In nearby Snake Park, Ward 50, residents expressed similar sentiments.

“We spoke to our current councillor and also tried to go to Eskom offices to ask for help, but nothing yielded results until gogo came here,” said resident Thapelo Tsinyane.

“Gogo delivered, and we are happy with that. We are voting for the person who delivered.”

Another resident, Duduzile Sibeko, said she had initially dismissed Zille’s promises because her community had also been without electricity for more than a year.

“We vote for people, and when they get into positions of power they forget all about us,” she said.

When News24 visited Ward 50, Zille was addressing a small gathering to mark the installation of a new transformer. Eskom officials were also seen installing electricity meters at homes in the area.

Several residents repeatedly expressed gratitude for what they viewed as tangible action after years of frustration.

“We thank God for Gogo Zille,” one resident said during discussions with News24.

The interventions form part of the DA’s broader election strategy in Soweto, a township long regarded as one of the ANC’s strongest political bases.

The party argues that practical solutions to service-delivery failures can persuade residents to reconsider their traditional voting patterns.

Thamsanqa Mabhena, Zille’s deputy campaign manager, said the DA deliberately chose Soweto as a key battleground because it symbolised both the ANC’s historical strength and the consequences of government failures.

Mabhena said the campaign began with an extensive listening exercise.

“You don’t want to impose yourself without listening to residents,” he said.

“We first listened to what people were saying, and the issues were clear: Water, electricity, potholes and a lack of basic services.”

According to Mabhena, those engagements informed a series of interventions to address pressing water and electricity challenges.

One of the communities targeted by the initiative was Water Wax informal settlement, where residents still rely partly on communal taps and water tankers.

Residents told News24 they often went days without water deliveries and, before the installation of boreholes, were forced to buy water brought in from neighbouring communities.

“For each bucket you paid R7 and one bucket is not enough,” said resident Tsakane Chauke.

“You need at least four buckets and even that only lasts a day and a half.”

When News24 visited the settlement, residents queued with buckets and drums shortly after a water tanker arrived.

Several residents said conditions had improved since the boreholes were installed.

“We really appreciate what the DA has done for us,” said Chauke.

“Things are much better now. Yes, the pressure from the taps is low, but it’s better than not having water at all.”

Yet gratitude has not automatically translated into political support.

Some residents said they were considering voting for the DA, while others insisted service delivery and voting choices should remain separate.

Mabhena rejected suggestions that the interventions amounted to vote-buying.

He said residents were free to support whichever party they chose, adding that the projects were intended both to address immediate hardships and to demonstrate what a DA-run administration could achieve.

News24 observed a noticeable number of residents wearing DA T-shirts in Dobsonville. While party regalia is not a reliable measure of electoral support, it was an unusual sight in an area historically associated with the ANC.

Soweto has long been one of the ANC’s most loyal constituencies, but the party’s support has steadily declined in recent local government elections amid growing frustration over service delivery.

Electricity has been a particularly contentious issue in Soweto.

Ahead of the 2021 local government elections, communities including Naledi, Chiawelo and Dlamini experienced prolonged power outages. When ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa campaigned in some of those communities, residents repeatedly confronted him about the lack of electricity.

READ | ‘What difference will it make if we do not go out to vote?’ Soweto residents vote, even without electricity

On election day, several roads in Soweto, including sections of Chris Hani Road, were blocked by residents protesting over service delivery failures. Some of the disruptions occurred near Hitekani Primary School, where Ramaphosa cast his vote.

Although the ANC retained control of most Soweto wards, its support dropped significantly compared with 2016, with electricity and other service-delivery concerns featuring prominently in voter complaints.

The DA, which has spent years trying to break the ANC’s dominance in Soweto, believes this election could mark another step forward.

Whether restored electricity and improved water access translate to votes remains to be seen. But in communities that spent months, and in some cases years, without basic services, many residents told News24 one thing was clear: promises mattered far less than results.

News24 surveyed 5,001 registered voters to reveal who leads, what voters want fixed, and which coalitions South Africans could support.

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