JUST IN | Geordin Hill-Lewis announced as DA Mayoral Candidate for Cape Town

Democratic Alliance leader Geordin Hill-Lewis was officially announced as the party’s mayoral candidate for Cape Town on Saturday.

He delivered the following speech at the launch event in Hanover Park.

Full speech

Friends, residents of Cape Town,

Today we begin the next chapter in the story of this city we love.

And I want to begin by saying: thank you.
Thank you to the people of Cape Town who placed their trust in me and in the DA.

Thank you to every resident who has worked with us, challenged us, held us accountable, reported faults, joined neighbourhood watches, picked up litter, started businesses, volunteered in communities, and kept believing that Cape Town can become even better.
Because a city is not built by concrete and steel. A city is built by its people.
And Cape Town is a city full of wonderful people.

The best part of my day is meeting and chatting with the residents of this city.

As soon as I get out of my office and into the streets, I feel the warm hearts of Capetonians.

I love listening to their stories, sharing a meal together, hearing what is working and what isn’t working, and laughing together.

Ek sê vir al ons inwoners met wie ek gesels het, dankie vir die lagstories, dankie vir die kuier, vir die soet tee en beskuit, die koesisters, the gwinyas, the music, dankie vir julle vrygewigheid.

Dankie vir die liefde.

Enkosi ngothando.

I am standing here today with deep humility and a full heart.

Four and a half years ago, we set out with a simple mission.

To be the City of Hope. For all.
To show every person that they do not have to give up on the dream that South Africa can work.

To demonstrate that no one needs to accept that the only direction our country can go is backwards. We can go forwards.
No matter how tough our problems, we can solve them, step by step in the right direction.

Our love for Cape Town and her people, our love for this country, made us determined to prove that we could be hopeful again.

And, nearly five years later, we can feel a deep sense of pride in the city we are building.

Cape Town is by no means perfect. And there is still so much to do.
But we are showing the whole country what a working city looks like – for everyone.

The candle of hope we have lit in Cape Town has become a torch lighting the way across South Africa – from Joburg to Emfuleni, to Ekurhuleni, to Tshwane, Umngeni and every corner of our country.

Everywhere people are saying, if that can happen in Cape Town, it can happen here too.

When I see thousands of children playing happily in all the swimming pools we have fixed in places like Mitchells Plain, or Langa, or Gugs, or Bellville my heart is full of joy.

As ek kinders sien lag terwyl hulle in die water spring, wat veilig in die somer kan speel in ’n swembad wat ons gebou het, bars my hart van vreugde en trots.

When I see teenagers in Manenberg and Mandela Park and Atlantis and Bishop Lavis playing on newly rebuilt sports fields of the highest and best quality, I know we have taken Cape Town forward for all.

When a young lady named Deidre called in on the radio with emotion in her voice to say she had just got her first job, I know that we are bringing hope to people who had once lost faith in the system.

When I meet an Auntie right here in Hanover Park and she tells me that whenever something happens, it is always Cape Town Law Enforcement officers that arrive first – always professional and always helpful – then I know we are helping make Cape Town safer.

When an elderly lady – an Ouma – cries tears of joy receiving ownership of the council house she has lived in for decades, but which has never been hers, I cry tears of joy too.

When a mother in Delft hugs me because she has her own flush toilet for the first time in her life, then I know we are delivering dignity to more people.

You see, it’s not the stats and the numbers and the clean audits that inspire me. All of those are important, of course.

It is the difference in the lives of real people and their real stories that inspire me to take Cape Town forward.

This morning I boarded a MyCiTi bus in Mitchells Plain Town Centre – proof that we are improving public transport so more residents can get to work and school more easily.

I visited Gugulethu, where local neighbourhood watches, supported by Metro Police, are making Gugs safer, street by street.

And I went back to Bonteheuwel, where families recently received their own homes for the first time, changing their lives through our belief in home ownership.

But, as much as we’ve done, there is always much more to do.
We cannot be complacent, we must keep moving Cape Town forward.

So, today, I am placing before the people of Cape Town our pledges for the next five years.

These are pledges that you can hold us to. They set out what we will do to take Cape Town forward, and what you can measure us against.

First: stronger policing.

We refuse to accept that crime is just part of life.

We cannot accept that mothers must listen to gunshots at night and wonder whether their children are safe during the day.

We cannot accept that illegal guns move through our communities while the national police service fails to do its job properly.

We know the truth: SAPS is failing too many communities. It is under-resourced, badly led and, in many places, corrupt SAPS officers are in corrupt relationships with gangs.

And while national government fails in its policing mandate, Capetonians pay the price.

So we have no choice but to keep building Cape Town’s own policing capacity.

No longer will we be beholden to others to keep our people safe. We will fight for more policing powers so that we can do it ourselves.

Because an arrest means little if the case collapses.
A confiscated gun means little if the criminal is back on the street.

To take Cape Town forward, we will build a Metro Police Detective Unit so that we can investigate cases ourselves.
This will help ensure that criminals do not just get arrested, but actually go to jail.

Cape Town needs a full chain of accountability: detection, investigation, prosecution and conviction.

We cannot wait for SAPS to beat crime.

The only way we will live without fear is if we build our own policing capacity.
I will not stop fighting until we have the powers we need, the tools we need, and the officers we need, to make Cape Town safer for all.

Second: more jobs.

Friends, in our first term, Cape Town created more jobs than any other city in South Africa.

480 000 new jobs in four and a half years.

In the same period, only 70 000 new jobs were created in Joburg.

In all three Gauteng metros combined there were just 348 000 new jobs.

Yet, in Cape Town, 480 000 new jobs were created, more than all of them put together.

Put another way, for every 1 job created in Joburg, nearly 7 new jobs are created in Cape Town.

Friends, that did not happen by accident.
It happened because the DA governs in Cape Town,
And where we govern, we create the conditions for businesses to invest and grow.

That means cutting red tape that blocks growth.
It means eliminating unnecessary fees.
It means streamlining licensing procedures.
It means saying to entrepreneurs, investors, builders, traders, innovators and small business owners: Cape Town wants you to succeed.

Cape Town understands that when you grow, our economy grows, and jobs are created.

In this term, we invested more in infrastructure than any other city in South Africa, and in fact more than many of the other cities combined.

This investment has made Cape Town the most functional and successful city in the country.

We will continue to invest more in essential infrastructure than any other metro in South Africa.

Because when cities work, people work.

Third: reliable and affordable services.

Every household knows that the cost of living is too high.

Every family knows that every rand matters.

That is why Cape Town must remain a city that delivers reliable services while keeping costs as affordable as possible.

We must continue to reduce our reliance on Eskom so we can get cheaper electricity.

We will take Cape Town forward by buying hundreds more megawatts of cheaper electricity from independent producers, and we will pass those savings on to residents.

This term we quadrupled sewer pipe replacements to bring better, more dignified sanitation to more people. And we doubled water pipe replacements to bring down water pipe bursts.

To take Cape Town forward for all, we will double fresh water pipe replacement again. We will replace 100 kilometres of fresh-water pipe and 100 kilometres of sewer pipe every year.

That is not glamorous work.
But it is the work that brings dignity to more people.
It is the work that brings better services to all.

We have a moral obligation to improve the basic living conditions of our neighbours and fellow Capetonians who live in extreme poverty.

And I will not shy away from this duty.

We will do it by spending public money efficiently and effectively and, in so doing, we will keep our property rates the lowest of all of South Africa’s cities.

Because clean, functional and reliable government must also be affordable government.

Fourth: more affordable homes.

Cape Town is growing because people see hope here.

People come to Cape Town because they believe they can build a better life here.
That is a strength.

But it also places pressure on housing, transport, and services.

We must meet that growth with bold, practical action.

I’m proud that we have delivered more homes than any other city in the country, and we have released more city-owned land than ever before in Cape Town for affordable and social housing.

Just last week we handed over one of the largest sites in the heart of the city, Salt River Market, for construction to begin on 970 new affordable homes.

And we have pioneered a first in South Africa – a programme to work with the private sector to allow for many more affordable rental units. While this programme is a first in SA, now we need to ramp it up.

To take Cape Town forward, we will ramp up our affordable rental units programme by working with the private sector.

We will release more City land for affordable housing.

We will upgrade informal settlements.

We will protect communities from unlawful land occupation, because illegal occupation does not solve the housing crisis, it makes it worse. It destroys planned development, undermines the rights of law-abiding residents, and makes it harder to deliver services fairly.

We will tax commercial operators of short-term rentals at business rates, because we must be honest about the pressures in the housing market and ensure that Cape Town remains a place where working families can live.

Our goal is a city where more people live closer to opportunity.

A city where affordable housing is not pushed to the margins.

Fifth: cleaner public spaces.

You’ve seen how much I love picking up litter. It is a passion, or even an obsession of mine.

We’ve invested so much more in cleaning up. We’ve supported wonderful residents who organise their own clean ups. And we’ve rolled out a programme with our new mascot, Bingo, in every school in the city, to change public behaviour over time.

We want everyone to live in a clean city and a clean community.
So we will continue to invest in cleaner and safer public spaces across Cape Town.

We will take tougher action against illegal dumping and littering.
We will continue upgrading parks, beaches, sidewalks and public spaces.
We will expand cleaning services in informal settlements.
And we will expand access to our Safe Spaces and social services for the homeless.

We will protect public spaces for all, while also offering people a pathway off the street and into care, shelter, rehabilitation and reintegration.

Because a city of hope must be a city of compassion.

Closing Friends,

These are our five pledges to take Cape Town forward.

Stronger policing.
More jobs.
Reliable, affordable services.
More affordable homes.
Cleaner public spaces.

And I want every resident to hear me clearly: we are not asking you to judge us only by what we say today.

Judge us by what we have already done.
Judge us by the fact that Cape Town keeps moving forward while so much of South Africa has gone backwards.

And then judge us again after the election, every day, against these pledges.
So today I ask the people of Cape Town for a renewed mandate.

A mandate to take Cape Town forward for all.

Because this city belongs to all of us.

Let us build a Cape Town that is safer, cleaner, more affordable, with more jobs, more homes, better services and greater dignity.

Let the message go out as loud as the beat of the ghoema drum, as loud as the march of the Christmas Bands.

Tell everyone.

This is our home. Ikhaya lethu. Dis onse huis hierdie.

This is Cape Town,

This is the City of Hope.

And we are taking it forward for all.

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