The Democratic Alliance (DA) says that decentralising power to local and provincial government is necessary, especially where the national government is not up to the task. Party leader John Steenhuisen was speaking at the DA’s virtual manifesto launch on Saturday.
South Africans go to the polls on November 1. Steenhuisen says people have a historic opportunity to make the change that will see services and jobs in their towns and cities.
He says it is the DA’s job to serve the people.
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Steenhuisen says the party also intends to devolve much of the policing functions from national to competent metros and municipalities and is willing to take the fight all the way to the Constitutional Court if needs be.
“We believe that the best results are always achieved through collaboration, and by decentralising power and control so that those who know the most about a problem are tasked with solving it. Sometimes this will require local or provincial governments to take on some of the responsibilities where national government is not up to the task. We can no longer simply accept that functions such as policing, commuter rail and electricity provision should remain the sole function of a national government that clearly cannot do the job,” says Steenhuisen.
We’re a party that not only has a vision and a plan, we’re also a party that does what it says it will do. And in local government, where the impact of service delivery makes such an instant difference to people’s lives, that is all that matters! – @jsteenhuisen #DAmanifesto pic.twitter.com/UplljQDf8C
— Democratic Alliance (@Our_DA) September 25, 2021
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