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Opposition parties express lack of confidence in DA following announcement of Cape Town mayoral candidate

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Opposition parties in the City of Cape Town have expressed a lack of confidence in the Democratic Alliance (DA) following the party’s announcement of its mayoral candidate for the Cape Metro.

Geordin Hill-Lewis has been named as the party’s preferred candidate to succeed current Mayor Dan Plato. While Hill-Lewis says he is looking forward to building on the DA’s successes in the metro, both the African National Congress (ANC) and Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) says poor areas have not been the party’s priority.

Hill-Lewis says job creation will be one of his key focus areas should he end up wearing the mayoral chain. He says it’s his aim to grow Cape Town’s economy faster than anywhere else in the country.

“My first obsession is to get Cape Town’s economy growing faster than elsewhere in the country.  When you have a growing economy that also gives you more resources as a city to invest back in those communities in the basic services that those people need, more jobs, less people in poverty, more people in work, more resources for the city, better basic services, that is the cycle we get going and focus on that relentlessly,” says Hill-Lewis.

DA mayoral candidate for City of Cape Town outlines priorities: Geordin Hill-Lewis

While Hill-Lewis has committed to ensuring municipal services to every resident in Cape Town, opposition parties, like the EFF’s Banzi Dambuza says they are not convinced. The party holds seven seats in the council.

“The DA has failed to give services to our black and coloured communities with sewerage, the potholes are a day to day problem, and they are planning to continue failing our people by making sure that they keep white supremacy happy and our people suffering as they are currently doing,” says Dambuza.

The ANC holds 57 of the 231 city council seats. Convenor of the ANC in the Western Cape, Lerumo Kalako, says the poor remain marginalised by the DA in the city.

“We know that there is nothing that is going to be done. Service delivery has been poor. Just drive through the townships, drive through Gugulethu, drive through Philippi – it’s spilling of sewerage.  There’s no maintenance of infrastructure, there’s no maintenance of roads, lights. That’s why the crime levels are even higher in those areas,” says Kalako.

However, Hill-Lewis says infrastructure development and municipal service delivery in poor communities is a priority.

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