DA launches ‘Get Joburg Working For All’ campaign as battle for city heats up

Hot on the heels of its manifesto launch, the DA launched its Joburg election poster campaign in Orange Grove on Wednesday. Leader Geordin Hill-Lewis, provincial leader Solly Msimanga and mayoral candidate Helen Zille unveiled the ‘Get Joburg Working For All’ campaign liner.

It is a simple message, Hill-Lewis said, but a slogan that the party believes will resonate with Joburg residents who have had to contend with deteriorating infrastructure and unreliable basic services.

“It is not a big, grand, miraculous political promise.

“Just to get towns and cities working again after years of poor management, corruption and infrastructure decline.

“We are interested in making Joburg, and every town and city work for everyone,” he said.

Simple slogan – Hill-Lewis

The party leader repeated the DA‘s ticket of clean government, responsible management of public money, investment in essential infrastructure and professional appointments in municipalities.

Hill-Lewis also took a swipe at the ANC, saying the DA appeared to have the campaign trail largely to itself. “I don’t know if the ANC have thrown in the towel in this city. I hope they have,” he said.

Helen Zille said that the Orange Grove she remembered was not the one she saw at the launch. “This whole area has been killed and destroyed. And I remember so clearly what it used to be like,” she said, and added that the physical deterioration of Joburg has also chipped away at how residents see their city.

“When this kind of thing happens, it destroys the pride of the community,” she said and added that City of Gold residents had become resilient to the point where failing services and deteriorating infrastructure were increasingly accepted as part of everyday life.

“When things start collapsing, they don’t complain for months. They actually adjust and get used to it, and it becomes the new normal. People forgot what normal should look like.”