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The one-time editor turned corporate executive and now political player has been a welcome addition to SA’s body politic. Through circumstances which were unimaginable just three months ago, Songezo Zibi chairs one of Parliament’s most important Committees – responsible for monitoring the trillions spent annually by the State. He spoke to BizNews editor Alec Hogg.
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Highlights from the interview
In this interview, Alec Hogg speaks with Songezo Zibi, the founder and leader of Rise Mzansi, about the political landscape in South Africa and the strategies of his party. Zibi discusses the shifting dynamics within South African politics, particularly the decline of the ANC’s dominance. He highlights the challenges and opportunities in Gauteng, mentioning the tough decision for their chairperson to serve as an MEC in a government with a historically problematic reputation. Zibi emphasizes the importance of political realignment at the local government level, advocating for consolidation among political parties to avoid fragmentation.
He shares insights into Rise Mzansi’s strategy, noting that the party is focusing on areas where they have strong support, particularly among professionals and young families in metropolitan regions. Zibi highlights a recent by-election where Rise Mzansi secured 10% of the vote, marking a significant achievement for the new party. Looking ahead, he stresses the importance of collaboration with other parties, hinting at potential alliances to strengthen their position in future elections. The interview concludes with Hogg praising Zibi’s contributions to South African politics and expressing interest in following the party’s progress.
Edited transcript of the interview ___STEADY_PAYWALL___
00:00:09:00 – 00:00:38:15
Alec Hogg
Well, for many people in the media, Songezo Zibi and Rise Mzansi have become the favourite political party. Not surprisingly, he’s a former editor of Business Day. But he has a lot more arrows in his quiver, as you will find out as we converse over the next few minutes. Songezo is the founder and leader of Rise Mzansi.
00:00:38:17 – 00:00:47:18
Alec Hogg
Good to see you, Songezo. Are you in Parliament, or is it a remote Parliament? How does that all work? Because I know being an MP is different for you.
00:00:47:20 – 00:01:12:15
Songezo Zibi
Yeah, no, thanks for having me on. So, I am actually at home in Centurion. I commute between Centurion and Cape Town every week when Parliament is in session, as it is now until the 18th of September. I typically leave on Monday and return either on Thursday night or Friday morning, if I don’t have any other business. That’s the theory.
00:01:12:17 – 00:01:33:08
Songezo Zibi
The reality is that because my committee is very busy and it’s a standing committee, I usually have committee business on Monday and Friday as well. So, I actually have a full working week with very little of the constituency period, which in theory is supposed to be on Mondays and Fridays. I try to mix things up.
00:01:35:12 – 00:01:47:11
Alec Hogg
Explain what a standing committee is, just assuming that many people watching or listening might not know how Parliament works.
00:01:47:13 – 00:02:13:23
Songezo Zibi
Yes. So, Parliament sits from Tuesday to Thursday. Committees meet in the morning, from 9:00 to 1:00. Then there’s lunchtime, and from 2:00 p.m. until 5:00 p.m. is the main sitting, sometimes up to 8:00 p.m., depending on the issues on the order paper, which is our agenda for the National Assembly. Most committees meet on Tuesday.
00:02:14:01 – 00:02:38:09
Songezo Zibi
Wednesday is Cabinet Day, and Thursday is Caucus Day, where political parties discuss their own business in the morning. There are a few standing committees in Parliament: the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, which I chair and which looks after government expenditure; the Standing Committee on the Auditor-General; the Appropriations Committee, which processes the budget; and Finance. These committees don’t have the luxury of meeting only on Tuesdays.
00:02:38:11 – 00:03:00:18
Songezo Zibi
The reason they’re called standing committees is that on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, you are expected to work. So that’s what I mean by mixing things up. In theory, Monday and Friday are supposed to be constituency days, meaning you’re not in Parliament, but if you’re on a standing committee, those days are for work.
00:03:00:20 – 00:03:06:09
Alec Hogg
Okay. Rise Mzansi—let’s start with the name and why you’re in politics.
00:03:06:11 – 00:03:37:01
Songezo Zibi
Well, getting involved in politics had a lot to do with my career and personal history. Almost everyone in my family was and is in the ANC, right? Since I was a kid. But that’s not why I got into politics. There were experiences, both good and bad, that led me here. The most profound was when I was editor of Business Day.
00:03:37:01 – 00:04:07:15
Songezo Zibi
During my career, I worked at Volkswagen at the beginning of the Motor Industry Development Program. I was in my third year of Communications at what was then Technikon, and they took me on as an intern. I eventually got a job. I saw the factory in Uitenhage, which is now in Port Elizabeth, transform significantly because of good politics and decent policy. I then left Volkswagen and went into mining, where I saw what bad policy looks like and what it does.
00:04:07:17 – 00:04:40:02
Songezo Zibi
Then I became a journalist at Financial Mail for a year and saw the other side, being closer to politics and what really happens. My editorship at Business Day was during the state capture years, and I was left reeling. I couldn’t believe the looting and gangsterism in politics. It was then that I realized you can’t always write about what’s going wrong—some of us have to step forward and try to fix things. That’s effectively why I got involved in politics.
Read more: Songezo Zibi: Don’t be a cry baby, John
00:05:27:22 – 00:05:35:20
Alec Hogg
But why start your own political party? Why not join the ANC, given your family’s strong ties?
00:05:35:22 – 00:05:56:19
Songezo Zibi
Interestingly, I wasn’t deeply involved in the ANC personally. My introduction to politics was through the PAC, which was politically opposed to the ANC. By the way, I was just a kid, about 14 or 15, but in the area where I lived and at my boarding school, everyone was in the PAC.
00:05:56:19 – 00:06:21:19
Songezo Zibi:
So, you know, you go with your buddies. So I was never really fully committed to the ANC at all, like tethered to the ANC as my family was. I never had any difficulty with not being involved in politics through the ANC. As a result, I was never a member. I was never involved with any of the satellite organizations, student or otherwise.
00:06:21:21 – 00:06:45:06
Songezo Zibi:
That was not an issue. What I did do, together with others, was to explore for years whether I should join the DA or not. We looked at the ANC and thought, that’s a lost cause. The logical thing to consider was the DA because it was a party that was rising, with lots of black leaders and so on.
00:06:45:08 – 00:07:09:18
Songezo Zibi:
But I felt that it needed to do what Labour did in the UK during Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson’s time—occupy the South African political center. And you don’t do that without shifting. So in other words, it would need to shift to center-left. I felt that if the DA did that, it would become an attractive proposition.
00:07:09:20 – 00:07:34:17
Songezo Zibi:
I think it was on its way to doing that, but I felt that its internal dynamics hampered that progress. I still believe so, and I still believe that it has significant potential if it were to evolve and find voters where they are, rather than trying to convince them to come over, which takes longer and causes a lot of damage in between.
00:07:34:22 – 00:07:43:14
Songezo Zibi:
So we ended up with a political party that we were fed up with, and since it has declined, somebody needs to occupy the space that the DA refuses to occupy.
00:07:43:16 – 00:07:52:00
Alec Hogg:
And the funding—there’s a lot of controversy around Harry Oppenheimer’s granddaughter, or grand who’ve helped you along the way.
00:07:52:01 – 00:08:20:11
Songezo Zibi:
Well, I’d like to comment on that. The funding thing is really interesting because I think there is a certain trajectory to new political parties that people have become familiar with. They think it must be all about money, and they must do all these things. To be honest with you, two things worked in our favor. One is my relationships that I’ve had for many years, working for corporates and being an editor.
00:08:20:11 – 00:08:49:10
Songezo Zibi:
I had a significant black book, so I could phone people up and that sort of thing. The second thing is that I also spent a lot of time in capital raising, because of my past work, so you learn how to make your case, you learn how to convince people to believe in the same vision that you have.
00:08:49:12 – 00:09:13:00
Songezo Zibi:
In South Africa, there is this belief that donors come to you, choose you, manipulate you, and that sort of thing. The relationship with Rebecca, and she’s not been our only donor—we’ve had quite a few—but she’s obviously given the most signal to us, was actually really significant. I mean, she’s an exceptionally smart person.
00:09:13:01 – 00:09:38:17
Songezo Zibi:
She is exceptionally patriotic about South Africa. She’s been deeply respectful of the distance you need to keep between a political party and its donors. We have incredibly respectful conversations. The same goes for other large donors. People didn’t expect us to get support, and this was shocking to them.
00:09:38:18 – 00:09:57:20
Songezo Zibi:
The second thing is that we were appealing to people who would have supported the ANC and the DA. And since the pie isn’t so big, there was a bit of jealousy in between. So I never took it personally. To be honest with you, I understood it in the context of competition in politics. You take the good with the bad and you keep moving.
00:10:01:17 – 00:10:39:12
Alec Hogg:
It is very interesting. I know the family quite well, from a different route in the horse racing industry, which I was very involved in. Mary, who I suppose would be the matriarch now that Bridget’s passed, is so publicity-shy, it’s almost painful. I’m sure for the whole family, lifting their heads above the parapet and doing what they’ve done in supporting political parties—not just yours, but others across the board—must have taken a lot of reflection. They knew they would be almost a magnet for criticism.
00:10:39:12 – 00:11:03:13
Songezo Zibi:
Yeah. And we had to think about that too, in deciding whether we accepted Rebecca’s assistance. Right. Because she’s donated significantly to us. I mean, in each of the window periods, she’s given us 15 million rand, which is a lot, right? I actually know Mary. We’ve met, and I agree with you. She’s not the kind of person who is flashy. She can walk past you, and you wouldn’t even know who she is. She’s incredibly humble. But Rebecca understands where the country is and the kind of people that need to be in politics. If people with her means do not step forward and help people like myself and my colleagues, who have less lucrative careers, to do the right thing, then the country gets nowhere. We discussed the issue of publicity and the criticisms that would be thrown at us. And she said, “Look, we all have to step up at some point, and I’m choosing to step up in this way.” I’m really grateful and proud of her for doing that.
00:11:52:09 – 00:11:58:22
Alec Hogg:
Why are you saying that? So, what was it about your elevator pitch that resonated?
00:11:59:00 – 00:12:17:14
Songezo Zibi:
What I would say is that, I mean, if you knew the people who ended up not helping us with money, the one thing they said, at least as feedback, was that we were genuine. We meant what we were saying, and we really wanted to do it. We were in it for the right reasons. We were very transparent about what we stood for. Our proposals, I think, were fairly detailed, especially in the beginning, about what we stood for, how we were going to develop policy, and what sort of long-term outcomes we wanted for South Africa. The vision was, and I believe still is, completely right.
00:12:17:16 – 00:13:05:03
Songezo Zibi:
But I also have to say, having surrogates who can vouch for your character is also important. There were lots of people who were able to do that—people who have credibility in society, either in business, politics, or civil society—who would pick up the phone and say, “Listen, you don’t know this guy, but I’ve known him for many years. Please hear him out. I think what he wants to do is worthwhile, and I hope that you can help him and his colleagues.” So there are lots of people that I’m really grateful to for doing that.
00:13:05:03 – 00:13:16:01
Alec Hogg:
And it is a real feather in your cap, knowing the media industry as I do. People in the media industry, who tend, I wouldn’t say always, but often try to make themselves feel bigger by making others in the industry feel smaller, almost universally came out in support for you. They know you, and they’ve given you the thumbs up. And as you say, also with people in business as well. But there was one issue that certainly must have hurt your votes in many areas of society, and that was your apparent endorsement of expropriation without compensation. Just unpack that for us. Was this all about politics?
00:14:02:15 – 00:14:28:15
Songezo Zibi:
It was. And I must say, the DA was quite smart in spotting the gap and, in my view, kind of pushing the envelope between being aggressive and engaging in disinformation. I would say—and I’ve gone into a lot of spaces like the, you know, the community meetings and so on to talk about this—that our full story is not long. When land was confiscated from black people, either in the 1700s or 1800s or even the 1900s, there were far fewer of us. South Africa was largely rural, with fewer people in the cities, and so on.
00:14:28:17 – 00:15:37:12
Songezo Zibi:
South Africa has more people now, which means even if you were to restore land to the families that owned it at some point, you would still be left with a lot of landless people. Secondly, South Africa is urbanizing in a chaotic way, and when people move to the cities, they often occupy informal land because there’s nowhere else to put up a shack. We pretend that this is not happening, but it’s the most prevalent land occupation pattern in South Africa. So what must you do if you are a government that respects the fact that you recognize, at least, that land restitution may be in the past? Access to land and land justice is possibly the thing you should be doing.
00:15:37:12 – 00:16:05:22
Songezo Zibi:
So in other words, you say, listen, we can’t give you the same piece of land that your ancestors had. People say it is now a county. We will devise some other mechanism, either pay you or provide some other form of compensation. Secondly, recognize that it’s not okay that every time people are landless and occupy annexed land—and so on, and they have to go to court—let’s recognize the problem, expropriate the land.
00:16:05:22 – 00:16:37:09
Songezo Zibi:
We see what is allowed in the Constitution, do spatial development properly, put public infrastructure in place so that at the rate at which South Africa is urbanizing, you’re also able to unlock land. I worked in mining. I think the people who are most unhappy with the mining industry about land, it’s not black people; it’s farmers. Why? Because the South African government and mining companies work together to expropriate the land.
00:16:37:11 – 00:17:10:20
Songezo Zibi:
The farmers become unhappy because the value received is not what they’re looking for. But the law is what it is. They get paid fair value, and the mine is built. Right? Farmers will tell you in Mpumalanga, in Limpopo, in the North West, and so on, all the mines were portions of farms before they were expropriated. If we can do that within the same Constitution to build mines and dams and roads and that sort of thing, why can’t we do it for housing?
00:17:10:22 – 00:17:26:15
Songezo Zibi:
That’s all we’re saying. So we’re not saying expropriate without compensation. We’re saying expropriate within the law, pay fair value, and do spatial planning properly so that you don’t have the chaos that we have now.
00:17:26:17 – 00:17:58:06
Alec Hogg:
I think things get lost in translation, especially with the complexity you’ve outlined there. What about the complexity of politics? You’ve now moved into this space, you’ve got a brand new, fresh party. I know you’re ambitious, and I know you are focused. In the next election, you’ll probably have more members of parliament or people locally. But just from your perspective, joining the government of national unity, what motivated you in that regard?
00:17:58:08 – 00:18:22:11
Songezo Zibi:
Sure. It was a hard decision. We joined late because, to be honest with you, you have to think carefully before getting into a relationship that involves the ANC. Okay? So we decided to have a proper conversation where the conversation might have had stages, but there were some principles that had nothing to do with party politics, but with the country.
00:18:22:13 – 00:18:50:14
Songezo Zibi:
I recognized immediately that with no one getting a majority, things we used to take for granted, such as money bills, would now be subject to contestation, and they might not go through. So we need to create a cooperative mechanism that gets the basics of governing right. And you can’t do that by saying, you know, I’m going to fight the ANC and the DA because they are our opponents and so on.
00:18:50:20 – 00:19:15:22
Songezo Zibi:
Let’s get together for the things that matter. And that meant we need to have a president who forms a government, takes the speaker and the deputy speaker. That was part one of the conversation. Part two of the conversation was, we want to be effective. We want to show South Africans what we do when we get elected. And so we want to play a very serious role in Parliament.
00:19:16:00 – 00:19:36:10
Songezo Zibi:
But you as the ANC, the guys who approached us, need to tell us why you want us in the GNU. Because if you don’t know why you want us there, then we shouldn’t be. And they said two things. One, your manifesto is social democratic like ours. People don’t trust ours, but I think they trust you.
00:19:36:12 – 00:19:55:13
Songezo Zibi:
It’s to say, if we were to say the same thing, you know, they wouldn’t believe us, but they might believe you. We want the same things from a social justice perspective. And the second thing is, they said, we recognize that at a time when, again, voters are fed up with the ANC and party politics, they want us to work together.
00:19:55:13 – 00:20:18:21
Songezo Zibi:
So, no long-term commitments. Let’s give this a chance. We will support you to play a serious role in Parliament, and we won’t interfere with your work. And that was the deal. And that’s why we’ve ended up with me as chairperson of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts. The last thing I want to say is, even though we threw a lot of punches at one another—the ANC, the DA, and so on—one of the things I learned, at least from American politics, is that when the election is over, you recognize that the voters want a government that works.
00:20:18:21 – 00:20:41:23
Songezo Zibi:
But, you know, the fact that we kind of delegated power to the Western Cape, I mean, that was an election type thing. I haven’t raised it because it’s not necessary to raise it. Let’s serve the South African people now and show them that democracy works. Otherwise, the crooks win in their argument that democracy doesn’t work and that you need a dictator like Zuma.
00:20:54:08 – 00:21:19:20
Alec Hogg:
We’ve seen the rand improve from around 19.50 to around 17.50, give or take a few, since either side of the Government of National Unity has held. What’s your view—not putting back your editor of Business Day cap—if you were writing a leader about the rand into the future? What’s your prognosis for a continuation of this very welcome trend?
00:21:19:22 – 00:21:41:14
Songezo Zibi:
I would say I’m sure there was another trend, by the way. So I have a small stock portfolio, and I watched it appreciate. Okay? And now I was actually talking to one of the journalists, and I was giving him updates, saying, “Look, I paid X amount, and now it’s this.” So there was a period where equities also improved.
00:21:41:16 – 00:22:04:20
Songezo Zibi:
And I had a meeting with the finance minister, by the way, and I said to him, “You know, the one thing I learned from working for listed companies is that clarity of the pathway or the strategy is important. Showing that you’ve got the people to execute on that strategy is important. But more importantly, it’s momentum.”
00:22:04:22 – 00:22:32:02
Songezo Zibi:
You need to show momentum. What this government cannot do is lose momentum. So you need to signal, present, and update—signal, present, update, signal, present, update. So you’ve got to do that. Even as the rand improves, I feel like if we were doing that, it should be at 16. Right? It should be at 16. It should be at 15.5.
00:22:32:02 – 00:22:55:07
Songezo Zibi:
And the GNU—it’s the nature of politicians, and I know because I am one—they don’t quite understand how the market thinks. I think we can do a heck of a lot better, but we’re not. But I’m glad about the trend. I have to say I am cautiously optimistic, but I think we can do better.
00:22:55:07 – 00:23:05:20
Alec Hogg:
And so the execution thus far—and it’s only been a few months—has been good. Are there any reasons for optimism that it will continue in this way?
00:23:05:22 – 00:23:26:11
Songezo Zibi:
Yeah, yes. Look, I mean, the three anchors of the GNU are the IFP, the DA, and the ANC, and they appear determined to make it work. And I think that’s a good thing. There are people who think that the ideological issues supersede everything. No. We wouldn’t have had the miracle if Madiba didn’t want to work with Mr. de Klerk.
00:23:26:11 – 00:23:46:15
Songezo Zibi:
You know, sometimes in a country’s life, you are challenged to work with people you don’t like or you don’t 100% agree with, as long as it’s good for the people. And I think the ANC, the DA, and the IFP, at this stage, are willing to make it work. And the other political parties as well.
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00:23:46:17 – 00:24:10:01
Songezo Zibi:
I believe that if I do a really good job as chairperson of SCOPA—hold the government accountable for what it does with the public purse and so on—it will actually be good for the GNU. Voters would say, “You know what? Actually, this kind of works where nobody wins, and so we might force them to work together again.” These are the choices in a democracy that will just return. So I think I’m very optimistic. We’ve got people who are looking at it with the right attitude, but we need to push one another to do better, do more, and do it faster.
00:24:24:03 – 00:24:28:13
Alec Hogg:
Were you surprised at being offered such an important portfolio?
00:24:28:15 – 00:24:49:16
Songezo Zibi:
No, I wasn’t offered; I had to fight for it. Do you know that 24 hours before the election, we actually didn’t have the votes? We had to negotiate right up to the last minute. By the way, the ANC wanted me to chair Appropriations, and I think that was partly because of the finance minister, given his job and my background and so on.
00:24:49:18 – 00:25:12:10
Songezo Zibi:
So he kind of really pushed. And there were a few instances where they kept saying, “No, no, Appropriations.” I said, “No, I want either Finance or the Standing Committee on Public Accounts.” And so I started lobbying hard—all of us did—my colleagues and everybody else. I spoke to the IFP, the DA, and they supported me. I spoke to MK, and while MK wasn’t thrilled, they didn’t object at the vote.
00:25:12:10 – 00:25:36:23
Songezo Zibi:
The big one was the ANC, and at around 5:00 PM the day before, Mandla eventually caved and said, “Okay, fine, I will support you.” That has to count for something at some point. So no, it wasn’t offered; I had to fight for it.
00:25:39:11 – 00:26:07:05
Alec Hogg:
But it’s also such a positive part as a South African to see that so many of those old tales—those old legends, those old myths, perhaps—have now been shattered. And yeah, they might have been relevant when the ANC had over 50%, but not anymore. For you to be shining a light on the way government spends its money, not being an ANC person, is commendable.
00:26:07:05 – 00:26:23:13
Alec Hogg:
But just to kind of wrap up as we come closer to the end of this conversation, Songezo, what’s your take? You don’t have a dog in the fight, but what’s your view on what’s going on in Gauteng, particularly in Tshwane?
00:26:23:13 – 00:26:51:00
Songezo Zibi:
Right now, I live in Tshwane, Alec. So there are two things about Gauteng. The first is that I must tell you, for our chairperson to be an MEC in the Gauteng government was a hard decision because the Gauteng government historically has had some problematic characters—let me be gentle and say that—and those characters are still there.
00:26:51:02 – 00:27:15:14
Songezo Zibi:
But the thing about voters is they give you the outcome that you get. We noticed a lot of hunger in Gauteng, and the agriculture portfolio, which impacts people’s ability to produce their own food, was something we thought we could address. But I was very clear with Panyaza that if we see any funny business, we are out of there at the drop of a hat. We’ll be out of there.
00:27:15:14 – 00:27:37:21
Songezo Zibi:
So if we are left alone to do our work and deliver, then we can go ahead and brag about it. But if there’s an issue at the provincial level, then the ANC needs to prove themselves. It’s not just Tshwane; the city of Johannesburg is also a disgrace. I’ve been to Johannesburg, and it’s an absolute disgrace. It should be the jewel of the African continent, but it’s so messed up. I live in Tshwane, and if I told you how much I pay for water, still based on incorrect billing, your eyes would water.
00:27:37:21 – 00:28:05:10
Songezo Zibi:
What we need is for this realignment to be completed at the local government level. In my view, it’s actually a good thing if we don’t have a majority. But you need a consolidation of political parties so that you don’t have 15 political parties being part of a council—maybe just 5 or 6. We are actively talking to other political parties ourselves about consolidating ahead of 2026 and 2029 so that South Africans have fewer choices but good people within those environments.
00:28:05:10 – 00:28:30:19
Alec Hogg:
That’s a big statement. Who are you talking to?
00:28:30:21 – 00:28:59:12
Songezo Zibi:
So we’ve actually started working with GOOD. One of our guys is a GOOD councilor. We’ve started a sort of joint membership conversation. We’re talking to Mmusi, we’re talking to ActionSA, and to BOSA. Let me not just say Mmusi; Mmusi and I sit next to each other in Parliament, and we’ve had this conversation where we said, “Hey, listen, let’s talk about how we cooperate in 2026 and 2029.”
00:28:59:16 – 00:29:19:12
Songezo Zibi:
We don’t need to cannibalize one another’s supporters in certain areas. Let’s try and put our best foot forward. ActionSA is in that conversation as well. We’re not going to rush anything, but we think consolidation is important for the future, and we are going to do it in good faith.
00:29:19:14 – 00:29:31:18
Alec Hogg:
But the way that ActionSA is behaving in Tshwane right now, certainly the feedback that most people are getting, is that they’re being irresponsible. Is this accurate?
00:29:31:19 – 00:29:59:00
Songezo Zibi:
I don’t know; we’re not in that council. I will say this as a general statement. I think within the former—well, I used to say Moonshot; it’s no longer Moonshot—it was the ticket. And once on the table, come to me, there is a lot of hurt, Alec, a lot of it because there were many unequivocal statements made about never working with the ANC, and so on.
00:29:59:00 – 00:30:23:16
Songezo Zibi:
And, you know, as soon as the situation changed, the DA was like, “Cheers, we’ll talk to those guys now,” and so on. So I do think there is an element of that. I don’t want to get into their heads; that’s why I’m saying maybe we shouldn’t rush anything. All of us should just heal. And I often say it’s not a good idea to make big decisions while you are grieving.
00:30:23:18 – 00:30:28:20
Songezo Zibi:
You need to give it time. And I think they also shouldn’t rush, and I don’t feel—
00:30:28:22 – 00:30:47:10
Alec Hogg:
Last question. We’ve got local government elections coming up just around the corner—it feels like 2026—and then the next national and provincial elections not long after that, just a couple of years later. Where’s Rise Mzansi’s trajectory from here?
00:30:47:12 – 00:31:11:22
Songezo Zibi:
So the one good thing about this election is that we now know the types of areas where our voters are. Contrary to what Helen might say, it’s not just white South Africans. I would say it’s professionals in both the public and private sectors, typically young families. In many areas with cluster homes, townhouses, and similar settings, we receive a lot of support, particularly in the metros and so on.
00:31:12:00 – 00:31:37:00
Songezo Zibi:
We contested a by-election in Ward 87 in Johannesburg. We want to be a double-digit party, and we got 10%. So we’re going to be very selective about where we contest. We want to target the kind of voters that we know, especially in these early days, who will give us that sort of support. This pilot gave us 10% for a new party like ours.
00:31:37:00 – 00:32:02:09
Songezo Zibi:
It’s a PR seat—a proportional representation seat—so it’s about where we contest. We did that, and that’s what we’ll continue to do. I think if we aim for 10% in the wards we contest, it will give us a decent showing in Johannesburg, Tshwane, and Ekurhuleni. Then we can build on that in terms of national support for 2029.
00:32:02:11 – 00:32:17:06
Songezo Zibi:
But by then, hopefully, we’ll be part of some form of consolidation. If everything goes well, it won’t just be Rise Mzansi; it will be Rise plus, plus, plus, you know.
00:32:17:08 – 00:32:39:23
Alec Hogg:
Fascinating insights, Songezo. There’s no question that you are a great addition to the body politic. We look forward to talking with you more in the future and watching the progress of both your party and the consolidation you’ve spoken about. Songezo Zibi is the founder and leader of Rise Mzansi. I’m Alec Hogg from BizNews.com.
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Source Link: https://www.biznews.com/interviews/2024/09/02/risemzansis-songezo-zibi-media-insiders-rebecca-sa
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