Mayibongwe Maqhina|Published
DA leader Geordin Hill-Lewis has set his sights on an outright majority in Cape Town in the November 4 municipal elections, despite recent polls putting the party’s support between 46% and 52.6%, down from the 60% it secured in the 2021 local government elections.
“Our target is to win with an outright majority, but the polls are close,” he said as he unveiled an election billboard in District Six featuring President Cyril Ramaphosa’s own words acknowledging that the best-run municipalities are governed by the Democratic Alliance.
His comments came a day after the eNCA/MarkData poll predicted the DA would receive 52.6% support in Cape Town, compared with 46% in a recent Ipsos poll.
Hill-Lewis acknowledged that the results of the two polls were close.
“This is why we must call on every single DA voter, every DA supporter, that if you are thinking about voting for the DA, come out and back the DA on the 4th of November. Don't go for those smaller parties who want to throw Cape Town into a coalition of chaos. Let's get behind the DA so that we can take the City forward. We want an outright DA majority,” he said during an interview.
Hill-Lewis uses Ramaphosa’s words in election billboard
Speaking at the event, Hill-Lewis said Ramaphosa’s statement during the “roll call” meeting with ANC councillors last year remained a moment that meant a great deal to him.
He said the billboard was intended to ensure that everyone knew the ANC also recognised that the DA governed best for everyone.
“When your chief opponent agrees that the evidence is indisputable, then it really is beyond debate. Where the DA governs, things move forward. Where you have chaotic coalitions, you often find that they tend to move backwards. That is the choice on offer in Cape Town in two weeks’ time and in many, many other cities and municipalities across our country,” he told DA members and supporters.
Hill-Lewis also said he believed hundreds of thousands of new voters who had never voted for the DA before were thinking like Ramaphosa in recognising that his party governed better for everyone.
The billboard was the first of many to be rolled out across Cape Town.
“We decided to start with this one because on Wednesday, of course, is the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement in Parliament, down the road. I love the fact that all the ministers and the president are going to drive down this road on Wednesday and look, be reminded of their own endorsements of the DA.”
DA highlights jobs and infrastructure investment
Hill-Lewis added that every South African deserved to live in a town or city where businesses could grow, investment could flow and jobs could be created.
He said the question was whether municipalities wanted a party with a track record of moving things forward wherever it governed, or parties with track records of chaos and going backwards.
He said half of all the jobs created in the metros were in Cape Town and that the City deliberately invested heavily in infrastructure, among other things.
Hill-Lewis laughed off statements made by Ramaphosa during his campaign trail over the weekend that Cape Town was a city of two tales.
“He's got a row back from that statement (best run municipalities governed by the DA), but we are not going to let him row back on. He's going to see it now every time he drives down the street and that anecdote meant a great deal to me,” he said.
“That statement is true and that we are working for everyone in our city. It is a wonderful thing to get an endorsement from the president. I want to say thank you to him very much.”
Hill-Lewis warns against coalition government
Hill-Lewis acknowledged that, under the DA-led City, there was still much work to do, but said things were moving forward in the right direction.
He said some parties wanted to destroy what was being built in Cape Town and throw the City into a coalition of chaos.
“We have seen elsewhere around the country what happens when cities are thrown into a coalition. As a rule, there are some exceptions in some towns, but as a general rule, those coalitions have brought instability and they have brought backwards movements, not forward progress.
“Here in our city, we have been head and shoulders above the rest with forward progress. So let us not allow those smaller parties to throw Cape Town into those same coalitions of chaos that we see elsewhere in the country.”