Democratic Alliance Leader,John Steenhuisen has announced Chris Pappas as his party's KwaZulu-Natal Premier Candidate for next year general elections.
Chris Pappas is currently the Mayor of Umngeni Local Municipality which was won by the Democratic Alliance during 2021 local government elections and he is the only Mayor of the DA in the province of KwaZulu-Natal.
Steenhuisen's decision to nominate Chris Pappas as the party's face in the province next year has been influenced by an impressive track record of good governance and better service delivery in his municipality.
Today's announcement by DA Leader proves that Democratic Alliance is capitalising on the weaknesses of the African National Congress(ANC) in the province and is working tirelessly to unseat the ruling party in the next year general elections.
Since Pappas was voted as the Mayor has been the darling of the people of Umngeni Local Municipality and KZN as a whole because of his work ethics that made him the only choice for people who wants service delivery and good governance.
The 32-year old Mayor was recently named in the 2023 Time Magazine 100 next list and that magazine recognised him as one of the emerging leaders from around the world.
On his first few months as the new mayor of the municipality he took his time to visit the neglected communities of Umngeni to listen to the people on the ground and promoted openness when it comes on how the municipality's budget would be used to improve the livelihoods of his people.
His presence as the DA's Mayor has kept the ANC leadership in that region and the province as whole on their toes and they have been so hard to make his tenure as the mayor of the opposition in their stronghold an uneasy task.
Pappas has garnered more support from the locals because of his fluency in Zulu which is the language that is spoken by almost 90% of the people in that small,impoverished municipality on the Midlands of KZN.
Despite his popularity amongst the locals but his life is in danger because since he took over as the Mayor of the Municipality has received numerous dead threats and that has forced him to change his residence more than three times from 2021 till now.