Forget the manifestos, voters want Batho Pele

In 1997, the government led by Nelson Mandela did something no government has managed since: it wrote a one-page contract with the people that anyone could understand – Batho Pele – People First.

Eight principles. Not a manifesto, a behaviour manual.

Now, 29 years later, every party is looking for a winning message for the local government elections on Wednesday.

They are spending millions on war rooms, on social media adverts, on door-to-door campaigns, on T-shirts.

Every election, parties print glossy manifestos. Voters stopped reading them. They now vote on one thing: did you treat me like a person when I needed you?

The Batho Pele principles remain the most honest contract yet written between government and citizens.

Parties should save the money and go back to that poster that is now yellow and curling on the wall of every municipal office.

Here is how Batho Pele translates into votes today. The ANC wrote them, but any party that lives them will win the election.

Consultation

Stop announcing projects to people. Ask them. Before you install a JoJo tank at a councillor’s house, ask the street if they want a tank or a fixed pipe.

March and March happened because home affairs never consulted residents when it reopened asylum offices.

Consultation is not a ward meeting. It is listening and recording.

Service standards

Tell us what you will do and when. “Water will be restored in 48 hours” is a standard. “We are attending to the matter” is not.

Publish turnaround times for a pothole, a meter reading. Then publish whether you met them.

Access

Services must be physically and linguistically accessible. Why must a gogo from Impendle take two taxis to Pietermaritzburg to query a bill? Why is your call centre in English only?

Put forms online, in isiZulu and seSotho, tshiVenda and keep offices open after 3pm and weekend.

Courtesy

A mayor who calls a resident a criminal, a minister who says “voetsek ook”, a premier who jokes about hotel shower during water cuts – all violate Batho Pele’s simplest rule: be polite.

Voters remember the insult longer than the RDP house built in the 1997.

Information

Give full, accurate information, not spin. If Rand Water is throttling, say so.

If you spent R500 million on public order policing on 30 June, gazette it.

The current crisis at home affairs is an information vacuum. Tell South Africans: how many applications, how many approved, how many deported, at what cost.

Openness and transparency

Publish the tender. Publish the mayoral fuel bill. Batho Pele said in 1997 that administration must be open.

In 2026, that means live-streaming council meetings and putting the valuation roll on WhatsApp, not hiding it in a PDF.

Redress

When you fail – and you will – apologise and fix it fast.

An apology is not “I am human”. It is: “We were wrong, here is what we will do by Friday, here is who to call if we don’t.”

Value for money

The most forgotten principle. Residents know when a R2 million toilet is built. Use money as if it were your own.

If the EFF, the ANC, or the DA want to surprise on 4 November, they should take the eight faded Batho Pele posters off the wall, reprint them and make every councillor sign them in front of residents.

People want a respectful answer today, and every day. May the best Batho Pele party win.