“Marketing Genius": Helen Zille Grabs a Paddle and Takes On the City of Joburg Over Flooded Streets

• Helen Zille took a kayak into the flooded streets of Johannesburg and put the city’s crumbling infrastructure squarely back in the spotlight
• The City of Joburg spent just 26% of its capital budget on critical infrastructure projects including vital stormwater upgrades that could have prevented the flooding
• Zille previously went viral across the world after snorkelling in a Douglasdale pothole that had been ignored by the city for three full years

DA Federal Council chairperson Helen Zille was back in the water on Tuesday, 14 April 2026. This time, she swapped her snorkel for a kayak.

Zille took to the flooded streets of Johannesburg to prove a point she has been making for months. According to her, the City of Joburg has billions set aside for infrastructure and is spending almost none of it.

She posted the clip on X along with a hard-hitting message about the city’s capital budget. Zille pointed the finger at theft and mismanagement for the shocking 26% spend rate in the 2025/26 financial year.

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The post went up on 14 April 2026, and sparked mixed reactions from South Africans online. Zille, the DA’s mayoral candidate for Johannesburg, used the moment to push South Africans to register and vote for a DA government. The kayaking was not just a dramatic stunt. It was a calculated move from someone who has turned Joburg’s broken streets into a full campaign strategy, one splash at a time.

This is not Zille’s first time in Joburg’s water

In late March 2026, Zille made headlines by pulling on a wetsuit and climbing into a water-filled pothole on Balder Road in Douglasdale. The trench had been sitting there for three years because of a burst pipe, locals said that nobody would fix it. Zille swam in it. The clip was picked up by Canadian network CTV and the Associated Press.

Mayor Dada Morero was forced to respond, and repair crews arrived the very next morning. Zille had also been seen sitting in a flooded pothole and directing traffic at a broken robot. She has been building a content library that documents Joburg’s daily service delivery failures.

See the X post below:

Mzansi reacts to the clip

Briefly News compiled some comments from the X post below.

@ZawadiMs commented:

“This gogo will only work for white people, we don't want you in Joburg.”

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@dudleyvisser said:

“You are a marketing genius. As much as I don't like your style, I will take a page out of your book. Well done, Helen. However, I will still not vote for you, but I love your charisma to get over the line.”

@MonwabisiN29438 wrote:

“I’m embarrassed to say this is a stone’s throw away from where I grew up. It’s been like this for years, and I’m not exaggerating. It has become so normal that motorists use the oncoming lane when it’s raining/just rained.”

@thabimashilo commented:

“This one must be ashamed of herself. On days like that, kids walk to school, pass through that same water she’s playing in, yet she wants their parents' votes. We are doomed in this country, and these are the people who must lead us.”

@AppollisPe69411 wrote:

“This ‘joke a minute’ campaign does not speak to the unemployed and poor in that same street. Why not involve the community in that street on a drain campaign for their betterment? This is not Cape Town, where these theotrics work.”

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More about Zille

• Briefly News previously reported that Helen Zille traded her snorkel for a fishing rod and took on the City of Johannesburg just days after her pothole swim went viral.
• The City of Johannesburg reportedly dispatched repair machinery to Balder Road in Douglasdale after a long-standing water leak and pothole caused major community frustration.
• Johannesburg's mayoral candidate, Helen Zille, swam in a pothole to highlight the city's infrastructure issues.

Source: Briefly News