Statement by Jane Sithole MP – DA Leader: Mpumalanga Province:
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Mpumalanga has proudly announced James Masango as our Mayoral Candidate for Govan Mbeki Local Municipality, in the run up to the upcoming 2026 Local Government Election.
On Wednesday, 11 March 2026, I had the privilege as DA Mpumalanga Provincial Leader to officially announce and unveil Masango as a mayoral candidate for Govan Mbeki, in front of cheering DA members and local communities in Bethal.
By fielding a mayoral candidate for Govan Mbeki, the DA declares our unequivocal intention to challenge for the municipality which has been subjected to continuous water outages, sewer spills, deteriorating infrastructure and general service delivery failures, under the current ANC and EFF coalition government.
In 1998, Masango was elected constituency chairperson of the DA in Govan Mbeki Municipality, serving until 2004. He has been a Public Representative for the DA in Govan Mbeki since the year 2000.
From 2004 to 2019, Masango held a number of senior positions in the DA Federal Council, while he was also a member of parliament. He also served as the Provincial Leader of the DA in Mpumalanga between 2015 until 2019.
Currently, Masango serves as the DA’s representative in the Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature.
The DA’s choice of James Masango as our Mayoral Candidate for Govan Mbeki was the culmination of a competitive, thorough and exhaustive DA internal process of applications and interviews to select the very best person for the job.
We will help Masango to lead a campaign that connects with the hearts of every person in Govan Mbeki, a campaign that would reach every community, and tackle service delivery challenges facing Govan Mbeki.
The DA has full confidence in Masango as Mayor, and with his experience and rich political background, we believe that he will get Govan Mbeki Municipality working again.
Skool
So I\’m real good friends with this guy named Juan Ted. Now, Juan is a pretty unbelievable guy. He can steal ANYTHING he wants to. Literally anything. It could be the shirt off your back, the wallet in your pocket, or I\’m even sure he\’d find a way to steal your house (And your spouse too). So anyway, one day Juan and I are sitting around watching TV, and they announced that the hope diamond will not be on display anymore and is now getting moved to an undisclosed location. So as we hear this, Juan says \”I\’m gonna steal it\”. Now I know how good Juan is at this kind of stuff, so I just tell him good luck and he goes on his way. Eventually he narrows his search down to a small cave in South Africa. When Juan gets there, he doesn\’t see any guards or anything outside the cave, so he just walks in assuming he was wrong about where the diamond was. He wanders around for a while until he sees a long lit hallway with the hope diamond at the end of it. Confident in his abilities, he strolls over to the diamond and picks it up before realizing its a trap! Suddenly, red lights flashed, armed men came running out, sirens went off. You could hear one of the men say under his breath \”We finally caught Juan Ted.\” But Juan, being the best thief in the world, said \”Not quite. On the count of three, I will disappear.\” As the men looked around confused, Juan began to count. \”Uno. Dos.\” And he disappeared without a tres.