DA fields its Young Lions

Politicians whose combined ages fall just short of that of their party's leader, Helen Zille, are leading the local government elections fight for the DA in Gauteng.

The DA mayoral candidates for Johannesburg, Mmusi Maimane, 30, and for Midvaal, Timothy Nast, 29, are taking the fight to the ANC in the province.

Maimane said "young talent" is needed to sharpen his city's administration, and effective service delivery needs fresh ideas. He is a few months away from completing his master's degree in public administration and said that any mayor of Johannesburg should have such a qualification.

"I think young people must come into public administration, not only because they are young, but because they can find innovative ways to improve service delivery," he said.

"The private sector has proved that employing young professionals, and mixing them with experienced and skilled workers, yields good results and I think the public sector should go the same route."

If he is voted into power, Maimane said he would first tackle the chaotic R580-million billing system by investigating how the contract was awarded and who benefitted from it.

In addition, all officials - from councillors to the municipal manager - would be forced to sign performance contracts that could be used as a basis for firing them if they did not do their jobs.

Maimane, raised in Soweto, became interested in politics in early 2000 when he headed several non-government organisations, one of them in Zandspruit informal settlement.

"I realised NGOs can only do so much for community development because we could only manage to get shelter and bursaries for children, but we could not do enough to change the society," he said.

Maimane said he also holds a degree in psychology and a master's degree in theology.

South of Johannesburg there is another DA young lion. Timothy Nast has run the Midvaal council for two years. He became a part-time mayoral committee member in the DA-held municipality at the age of 19.

He agreed that politicians need to be properly qualified to deal with a municipality's finances.

Nast, his council's speaker before he took over as mayor from Marti Wenger two years ago, said his auditing background has helped maintain a good collection rate on municipal services.

Having recently completed his auditing articles, Nast said the combination of his age and his education helped him to be more "hands on" with the municipality's administration.

He said maintaining a well-run municipality had helped attract investors such as chocolate giant Ferrero Rocher and brewer Heineken, whose multi-billion investments have boosted job creation.

A survey by Gauteng's provincial government ranked Midvaal as the province's top municipality in terms of quality of life.

"It's about focusing on basics, ensuring roads are well maintained, basic services like water and sanitation are accessible, refuse is regularly collected and street lights maintained."