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Cape Town-born politician Helen Zille is at it again, with her campaign efforts leading her to more of Gauteng’s ‘waters’. 

Just weeks after her widely shared pothole ‘snorkelling’ moment in Johannesburg, the Democratic Alliance (DA) mayoral candidate has surfaced in another viral clip. This time, she’s perched in an inflatable raft, gliding through a flooded street in Dobsonville, Soweto.

The footage, which began circulating online yesterday, shows Zille navigating standing water along Elias Motsoaledi Road, an area residents say has battled drainage issues for the past six years.

The unusual scene reportedly brought traffic to a halt on the road that regularly floods at its intersection with Main Road, often forcing many motorists to travel via risky alternatives such as the oncoming lane.

Zille’s campaign has leaned heavily into using Johannesburg’s infrastructure challenges (from burst pipes to blocked drains) as a backdrop to highlight service delivery failures. The snorkelling case brought attention to a recurring pipe burst that has been repaired multiple times over the years, only to burst again.

In this case, the flooded road she rafted through has reportedly been a long-standing issue linked to a blocked drainage system.

As a result of her water antics, the infamous pothole was seen to by trucks from Joburg Water and the Johannesburg Road Agency the very next day, while municipal crews were soon seen pumping water from the flooded road following her Soweto river rafting adventure.

Zille has subsequently deemed it ‘The Gogo Effect’:

As with her previously viral pothole swim, the reaction to her latest stunt has been mixed both online and at the scene, with some people praising the approach as creative and attention-grabbing, while others questioned whether moments like these risk trivialising the lived reality of residents dealing with persistent flooding and infrastructure failures.

At the scene, crowds gathered to watch Zille glide through the dirty drain water, motorists were reportedly hooting their encouragement, and pedestrians applauded from the side of the road.

Meanwhile, a passenger in a passing taxi recorded the shoot in progress. The audio of the video reportedly captured some fellow passengers’ sentiments in the background, with one questioning why the raft appeared to be pulled rather than paddled.

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Picture: Screenshot from video

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