If a political party is intent on posing as a paragon of virtue it would be wise to behave like one. The Democratic Alliance has been prone to postures of this kind. Yet, for the second time in the six months since it took power in the city of Cape Town, it has been found badly wanting. The skulduggery we expose this week in the office of Cape Town mayor Peter Marais shows contempt for the wishes of the city’s voters and a cavalier disregard of the norms of honesty. You do not go around forging voters’ signatures to support your cause if it is the voters’ trust you seek. To do so is fraudulent, and a disgraceful indictment. The leadership of the DA will have to act speedily against those responsible if it is recover the confidence of the majority of Cape Town’s electorate. The action the DA leadership takes against those found guilty of this fraud will, moreover, need to be harsh whatever level of the party they occupy and however important their continued presence might seem to be in order to hold together the two political cultures, from the former Democratic Party and National Party, that were combined to form the DA. If the DA fails to act in exemplary fashion it will suffer a profound blow to its credibility as, if not always a party many people like, at least a party many have grown to respect. The disgraceful forgeries we uncover this week appear to be representative of a deeper malaise in the Cape Town DA. Earlier this year, the DA in Cape Town announced that political loyalty to its programme would be a primary consideration in making appointments to the city administration. In doing so, it made a fool of itself. For, had the DA not been effective in its criticisms of the African National Congress for making civil service posts in central and provincial governments dependent on loyalty to the ruling party? Worse, in the course of politicising Cape Town’s top officials, the DA fired the city’s able manager, Andrew Boraine, and others who had given the fairest cape the very best of service. Moreover, since then, the DA has failed to put in place a city management team of its own. What is going on? If the DA wishes to grow to the point where it contends realistically as an alternative government to the ANC, it has to demonstrate credible government in those pockets of the country where it governs. Its six months in power in Cape Town do not speak well of it. The time has come for a clean-out. It should start with those responsible for the fraud against the people of the city we expose this week. Back to Basics If ANC leaders visit Soweto they will see disillusionment in peoples’ faces and hear anger in their voices as they confront the crisis in the supply of electricity. It may dispel confidence about an overwhelming majority at the next election. Soweto residents said this week that electricity was a right, not a privilege. The Congress of South African Trade Unions has asked the ANC to intervene in a situation in which 20 000 houses a month are being disconnected. Indiscriminate disconnections are taking place whether families, businesses, clinics or schools have paid bills or not. Residents have had enough of bribery and extortion from corrupt Eskom officials who demand weekly reconnection fees. After a protest march this weekend Cosatu is planning a two-day national strike against the privatisation of electricity, which is likely to raise tariffs for all. Sowetans are asking why their electricity tariff is higher than in Sandton? How can a pensioner, a minimal user, get a bill of R85 000? What is the mayor of Johannesburg, Amos Masondo, doing to help? What has come of election promises of affordable basic services? How much longer will they have to live with the dangerous fumes of paraffin and the live wires exposed by disconnections? How are children to be educated when schools are blacked out? And how long will they have to contend with broken meters? No one seems ready to take responsibility for answers. The national government says electricity is a concern of local government. Local government says it’s Eskom’s problem. Eskom says electricity is a privilege and to change that would require a policy change by national government. So the buck is passed. Meanwhile, the ANC whitters on about how many houses, schools and clinics it has built and how many telephone and power lines it has installed. Clearly ANC leaders have not been listening to Sowetans. The problem, is not confined to Soweto. Electricity problems have been reported in Chatsworth in Durban, KwaMashu, Sekhukhene in Northern Province, Katlehong and Thokoza on the East Rand and by an old-age home in Berea, Johannesburg, whose electricity supply was cut this week. What is to be done? The ANC needs urgently to arrive at a solution to these problems in talks with Cosatu, local government and Eskom. Instead of our president talking about Internet access for all, he should get back to basics by ensuring electricity for all. After all, you can’t run a computer without power. Hamba Kahle Who was Nkosi Johnson? Was he “the real face of Aids” and a “South African icon”? Or was he a 12-year-old boy, scared at the thought of dying, wondering what his life would have been like had he been allowed to grow up? But he had no chance. Twelve years ago we had no treatment to prevent transmission of HIV from Nkosi’s mother to her baby. Today, thousands of babies could have that chance. The staff of the Mail & Guardian join the nation in paying tribute to a brave boy robbed of a childhood by a horrendous condition. Many of us are parents horrified at the prospect of having to bury a child before our dreams for him or her have been realised. We offer our heartfelt condolences to all Nkosi’s relatives and friends and to the parents and relatives of all the other children similarly struck down by HIV/Aids but whose stories we have not heard.