PROFILE: Tshwane mayor Stevens Mokgalapa unapologetically liberal
Mokgalapa found his political home in the DA’s commitment to fight crime, corruption and cronyism
In 2000, while canvassing for votes in ward 58 ahead of local government elections in Pretoria, a young candidate visited an old-age home where one oom dubbed him Tony Leon (then the leader of the DA). He went on to win and became one of the first black ward councillors for the DA. Stevens Mokgalapa, now 42 and the mayor of Tshwane, laughs as he recalls his description back then as "the black Tony Leon". The boy who grew up in Winterveld in the former Bophuthatswana and saw his brothers arrested under the gatherings act in the late 1980s was sworn in as the first citizen of Tshwane in February, in a coalition government that can at best be described as strained. Mokgalapa, who was elected president of the Africa Liberal Network in 2017, proudly describes himself as a liberal — an increasingly rare brand in the DA, which has positioned itself as a governing party with the aim of becoming a bigger player provincially and nationally. In Tshwane specifically, the DA was the biggest part...
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