The Democratic Alliance has continued its campaign efforts in Gauteng ahead of the upcoming local government elections with the launch of its election pledges from Ekurhuleni mayoral candidate Khathu Rasilingwane.
She spoke to a full audience of blue-clad supporters at the Impala Park Community Hall in Boksburg on 10 June, vowing to focus on crushing corruption, improving service delivery and attracting investors.
Like Helen Zille in Johannesburg , Rasilingwane is gunning for an outright majority in the metro to avoid what the party has termed another “coalition of chaos”. The ANC currently governs the City in a coalition after winning 38% in the 2021 elections. The DA came second with 28%, followed by the EFF with 13%.
At 36, Rasilingwane is one of the party’s younger mayoral candidates. Since her candidacy was announced on 20 March, she has remained highly visible. She recently laid criminal charges against former Ekurhuleni city manager Imogen Mashazi and the company that allegedly bankrolled her trip to London, XET Solutions, following reports linking them to tender-related irregularities in the City.
DA supporters at the announcement of the party's election pledges to the people of Ekurhuleni at Impala Park Community Hall in Boksburg on 10 June. (Photo: OJ Koloti / Gallo Images) So naturally, corruption formed a significant part of her address, with Rasilingwane promising to take a hard line on corrupt officials.
“Every rand that gets stolen, there is a victim. Every rand that is stolen, it is a road in Kempton Park that is not repaired, it is the water pipe in Tembisa that is left leaking, it is the housing project for Tembisa that is left abandoned. Every stolen rand has a human face,” she said.
Rasilingwane vowed that if elected, she would conduct lifestyle and skills audits of senior management, fast-track disciplinary processes to fire officials who break the law, blacklist corrupt corporations from obtaining tenders, and address the queue-jumping that has worsened the RDP housing backlog .
“The current environment in Ekurhuleni is one that lacks accountability. This environment has given officials the feeling that they are immune to the rule of law. And we are coming as the Democratic Alliance to say no one will be above the rule of law of our country,” she said.
Providing basic services
Her next area of focus was basic services, particularly water and electricity. Ekurhuleni has suffered crises in both areas, driven by maintenance underspending, weak revenue collections and ageing infrastructure. The metro also suffers from non-revenue water losses of 28% and electricity losses of 16%, driven by illegal connections.
Rasilingwane said that up to 40% of the businesses she had visited indicated they would leave the city because of the lack of basic services. She placed the blame squarely on the ruling party, saying the ANC had failed to prioritise maintenance spending and infrastructure expansion to keep pace with the city’s growing population.
Members of the DA and Ekurhuleni residents attend Khathutshelo Rasilingwane’s announcement of the DA’s mayoral pledges to Ekurhuleni residents at Impala Park Community Hall on 10 June. (Photo: Reitumetse Pilane) Liam Jacobs attends Khathutshelo Rasilingwane’s announcement of the DA’s mayoral pledges. (Photo: Reitumetse Pilane) “So this is where we will be coming as the Democratic Alliance to ensure that there is budgeting to make sure that we are able to deal with infrastructure, water infrastructure, so that it can be able to accommodate the 4.2 million [people who] are now residents of Ekurhuleni,” she said.
“So we are going to prioritise maintenance, but we’re also going to prioritise that we budget for that infrastructure.”
She vowed to address the billing system to ensure it was fair and accurate, ringfence revenues for services to ensure they are spent on infrastructure maintenance, improve refuse collections, fix broken streetlights and fill potholes.
Tough on crime
She promised to tackle crime by rooting out corruption within the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police Department (EMPD), aiming to rebuild community trust after deputy chief Julius Mkhwanazi’s suspension over misconduct allegations at the Madlanga Commission. To enforce accountability, her plan introduces body cameras and rigorous vetting for all officers.
She also proposes providing officers with equipment, vehicles and ammunition, and strengthening coordination with neighbourhood watch associations.
“We understand that local knowledge is essential in knowing where local hotspots are, so we will ensure that we work with the neighbourhood watch and community policing forums to strengthen the arm of the law in our city,” she said.
The semigration push
This focus on clean governance forms part of a broader DA strategy. The party has made a concerted effort to prioritise winning Gauteng’s metros with outright majorities in the local government elections scheduled for 4 November.
The Ekurhuleni eve…
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