DA mayoral candidate for Johannesburg Helen Zille was dramatically stopped in her tracks today as she sought to embark on her campaign trail in Johannesburg.
On Thursday morning, Zille and her campaign team made their way to the closed metro centre building, which previously housed more than 2,000 city employees. She and her team were reportedly kicked out and told to await their arrest for alleged trespassing.
She said she was there to conduct an inspection of the building, which was shut down in 2024 after the approval of a report in council recommending its closure, pending an estimated R2bn refurbishment.
However, once they gained entry, they were dramatically ambushed by Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) officers, who closed the gates on them.
The metro police also reportedly called for backup to arrest Zille and her team. Once chased out of the building, they were held at the gate and refused exit.
TimesLIVE reporters arrived on the scene moments after Zille pushed her way through a gap in the fence while being prevented from leaving, and moved quickly towards her vehicle.
“I was practically held hostage here, and they refused to let me out. There was nothing unlawful about wanting to do a site inspection on a building they have shut down for years,” she said as she was whisked away.
Former Johannesburg mayoral committee member and now DA MP Leah Knott was part of Zille’s delegation and was also refused exit.
Knott told TimesLIVE they were there to conduct oversight, which is part of her duties as a public representative.
“What it looks like inside is an abomination at the moment. The fixtures have been destroyed; the doors don’t close or lock. They tried to lock us in, but there are no locks, so unfortunately they didn’t get that right.
“As public representatives, we have a right to come and see what is happening with the city’s facilities and report back to our constituencies. Our job is to perform oversight over the government and how they are managing these.”
She criticised how the scuffle played out, with JMPD officers allegedly saying they did not want them there while simultaneously barring them from leaving.
“We have a serious contingency of JMPD officers sitting here guarding an empty building. They are more worried about politicians coming in than they are about fixing the facilities where our officials work.
“We wanted to come and have a look at the metro centre. It was [emptied] quite a substantial amount of time ago over claims that it was uninhabitable and structurally unsound.”
However, Knott believes the claims are untrue.
“In 2019 and in 2020 I sat with the structural engineers who told us that there is nothing wrong with the structural integrity of the building. The issue is that the Johannesburg property company had failed to do maintenance over a long period of time.”
The MP alleged that even the reported fires in the basement were “intentionally timed” and ramped up the urgency for the building closure.
“The whole idea was to decant the building into privately owned properties leased for a considerable amount of money. They wanted to revamp the metro centre for billions, which the city does not have and that we both know is never going to happen. There is nothing wrong with the metro centre, they just needed to fix boilers, heaters, aircons, wiring and that sort of thing, but nothing structural.”
This was one of Zille’s recent media campaigns, which have continued to spark controversy on social media.
In March, Zille, dressed in a wetsuit, mask and snorkel, swam in a murky water-filled pothole in Douglasdale to highlight the city’s deteriorating infrastructure and the widening pothole crisis.
This week, Zille attracted attention for another campaign video where she was rowing a boat in a water-filled street in Soweto that had flooded due to a stormwater drain
Hours later, similar to the Douglasdale pothole, city officials were captured on video scurrying to fix the problems after Zille’s visit.
She said her campaign style reflected their mandate in the city.
“What we’re trying to say is that Johannesburg needs fixing and we are the party that can fix it.”
TimesLIVE
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