They feel unsafe in their own homes. We cannot afford another five years of ANC-led mismanagement and decay. The Democratic Alliance is fortunate to have excellent ward candidates in every ward who underwent a rigorous selection process before being allocated their wards. These men and women from across our diverse communities have demonstrated their commitment to public service and are intimately aware of the severe challenges the residents in failing municipalities face.
For that reason, our manifesto offer in this year’s Local Government elections is to get the basics right. To ensure there is clean water and a sanitary environment for every community.
Provide a hygienic environment to live and play – this includes consistent and reliable removal and collection of refuse. Give residents their power back by freeing them from Eskom’s load shedding through reliable, affordable and sustainable electricity.
To achieve these basics in currently-failing municipalities like Merafong is a mammoth task that requires a specific “whole of community” approach. Because our DA candidates are so familiar with the service delivery metrics in their communities, they can collaborate effectively with all stakeholders, including business and the NPO sector.
The DA brand of governance comes with an empirical track record of excellence as can be seen in small towns like Midvaal, where the municipality achieves consistently good audit outcomes every year.
A clean and efficient municipal government relies upon professional and fit-for-purpose staff members. Basic services cannot be implemented without capable and honest municipal staff. Therefore, a DA government will be committed to governing in the interest of the people by eliminating corruption, adopting best practices in good governance and ensuring the resilience of communities through effective disaster risk management. With the rise of farm attacks and rural crime like stock theft, a DA government will establish a rural safety unit to protect farms and smallholdings against criminal attacks. Beyond that, we are committed to improving the business environment by making it easier to do business. Independent reports show that the only towns in South Africa that work are DA towns because the DA gets things done.
As the foundation to bringing in investment and jobs and to save our municipalities, we will first focus on getting the basics right.
We have teams of capable, carefully selected candidate councillors who are technically proficient, well-trained and ready to tackle the challenges head-on to take hands with their community and fix Merafong.