/ 28 March 2011

DA targets Jo’burg in May elections

Da Targets Jo'burg In May Elections

The people of Johannesburg deserve Democratic Alliance (DA) governance, the party’s leader, Helen Zille, said in the city on Monday.

“We can win Johannesburg. Statistics show that we can,” she said.

Zille said infrastructure in Johannesburg, including the billing system, needed urgent attention.

A team of experts would rally around mayoral candidate Mmusi Maimane to run the city.

She said that when she took over as the mayor of Cape Town in 2006 she had no experience in local government, but a team of experts helped her to turn the city around to such an extent that it had been rated the best in South Africa.

The City of Cape Town was not perfect, but it had done a lot in terms of service delivery.

“We are not perfect, we make mistakes. But when we do, we do our best to fix them.”

Administrative system overhauled
Zille said the DA had overhauled the administrative system when it took over Cape Town, appointed the right people in the right places and re-prioritised expenditure.

“The new administration started getting a grip on its finances. Within a year of taking over the city, it had cut debt by nearly R1-billion and written off debt for the very poor.”

It began a drive to collect revenue from ratepayers with the means to pay.

“By 2010, the city had increased its revenue collection rate to 96%,” she said.

Maimane (37) said his priority would be to improve and increase service delivery to all communities, from Soweto to Sandton.

“We will deliver service for all,” he said.

Conceding that he had no experience in local government, he said that like Zille in Cape Town, he was determined to turn Johannesburg around.

“Even the current mayor [Amos Masondo] had no experience when he took over,” he said.

‘On the same path as Cape Town’
Zille, who was flanked by Maimane and Cape Town mayoral candidate Patricia de Lille, said the Cape Town story indicated that the party was moving in the right direction.

“Our goal at this election is to put other towns and cities on the same path as Cape Town,” she said.

She declined to reveal the DA’s targeted percentage of voters in the May 18 municipal election.

“I do not predict the outcome of the election, but we have put in place a strategy,” she said.

She said the DA-led Midvaal municipality had been rated the best in Gauteng, and had attracted investment that had contributed to reduced unemployment within its jurisdiction. — Sapa