Delivery basics on the ballot: Hill-Lewis makes his case

Water reaching taps. Potholes repaired. Streetlights that work. Rubbish collected on time. That, according to Democratic Alliance leader Geordin Hill-Lewis, is what the election on Wednesday, November 4 is really about: whether the machinery of municipal government actually functions for the people it serves.

Writing two days before South Africans go to the polls, Hill-Lewis argues that the country’s democracy promises every person the chance to build a better life, and that this promise is made real, or betrayed, at municipal level. A municipality that fails its residents closes the door to opportunity, he writes. A municipality that works opens it. Getting towns and cities working, in his view, is how South Africa begins to convert its potential into a better life for its people.

Cape Town is his evidence of what functioning government can produce. The city has added 418,000 jobs during the past term, a figure he attributes to competent government creating the conditions in which jobs are created and people can get ahead. He concedes there is much more to do, including in areas where the DA already governs. The measure, he says, must always be whether life is improving for the people being served, a standard he describes as the service mentality he will demand of every DA mayor and councillor.

Meanwhile, a significant portion of his appeal is directed at voters who have never supported the DA before but who, he says, are seriously considering doing so for the first time. To them he offers two assurances. The first concerns delivery itself: the party does not take lightly the faith being shown in it to fix things, and it will not let those voters down. It will serve every resident with passion and care, bring integrity to government, and work daily to get basic services working better for everyone. The second concerns example: choosing a better path, he argues, is brave and patriotic leadership, and in the coming years many others will follow.

Hill-Lewis is candid about the scale of the failure the election is meant to address. South Africans, he writes, have watched their cities and towns slide into collapse and felt the creeping sadness that it should not be this way. To those living with municipal failure, his message is blunt: they deserve better, and they can have it. The DA, he says, offers a government on their side, one that is honest about problems, accountable for results and determined to make the municipality work.

On how that delivery is to be achieved, Hill-Lewis frames the choice in terms of governing capacity. Only the DA, he claims, combines a proven governing record with the national strength to defeat the ANC and bring stable government to more towns and cities. Where the party can win outright, he asks for a majority to get things done. Where a coalition is necessary, he asks that the DA be made strong enough to lead it and keep it focused on delivery.

The closing argument is a warning against complacency. Hill-Lewis urges residents of well-run DA municipalities not to take good government for granted, saying the parties of chaos, violence and empty promises are counting on voters staying home. Don’t give them that easy victory, he writes; a vote will cement progress already made and provide the mandate for further change.

He ends on the same theme of showing up. This election, he says, will be won by those who turn out, and he asks everyone who wants a working country to vote DA in record numbers, to speak to family and friends, and to make the time to vote however busy life is. South Africa can work for everyone, he concludes; on Wednesday, let us vote to make it happen. The article was sponsored by the DA.