Opinion

DA manifesto blues

South Africa’s strongest liberal political party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), recently unveiled its manifesto for the upcoming local government elections in Johannesburg. The location of the launch itself tells a story. The DA is eager to break out of its Western Cape stronghold and build a stronger presence and impact in other provinces and metros.

The party has already begun taking its message beyond the Western Cape. DA Federal Leader Geordin Hill-Lewis is currently touring the country to sell the party’s plan directly to voters, with stops planned in some of South Africa’s biggest metros. The message is simple: when local government works, South Africa works.

The manifesto is also the first local government election manifesto under the DA’s relatively young new leadership. Many of the party’s younger leaders have come through the DA Young Leaders Programme, an initiative supported by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF) to develop young people interested in public leadership.

So, what does this new generation of DA leadership want to say to South Africa?

Hill-Lewis has put it rather simply: “The DA’s manifesto is a promise to people to get their towns and cities working.”

Perhaps this is an important promise for South Africans. Across the country, municipalities are struggling. Potholes become permanent features of roads, streetlights disappear into darkness, refuse goes uncollected, and water and electricity interruptions disrupt the lives and livelihoods of ordinary people. The DA has built much of its political argument around this failure of local government, particularly under ANC administrations and unstable coalition governments.

The party’s argument is equally straightforward: where the DA governs, it governs better.

There is evidence to support the argument that some DA-run governments have stronger records of financial management and service delivery than many municipalities elsewhere in the country. But no government is perfect. Recent findings by the Public Protector have, for example, highlighted serious failures by the DA-run City of Cape Town in providing basic municipal services to communities in Langa Flats and parts of Khayelitsha. The investigation found failures relating to water, sanitation, sewer infrastructure, lighting, and other basic services.

This does not necessarily take away from the DA’s broader governance record. But it does force us to ask an important question: against whom are we measuring success? Are we measuring the DA against the failures of the ANC, or are we measuring it against a higher standard of what a liberal, democratic government should actually deliver?

Nonetheless, back to the manifesto. The DA’s plan is built around six broad priorities: building a corruption-free and professional administration; getting municipal water systems working; getting electricity working; working together for safer communities; keeping municipalities clean and residents healthy; and creating working local economies. These are not unreasonable promises. In fact, they are arguably the basics of functional local government.

Corruption has been one of South Africa’s most tragic and persistent obstacles to development, keeping the country stuck below its potential and diverting resources away from the people who need them most. It contributes to the deterioration of infrastructure, weakens public institutions and undermines trust in government. The DA’s promise to build professional and corruption-free municipalities is therefore ambitious, but necessary.

The problem is that corruption is deeply embedded in some of our political and administrative systems. A manifesto can promise to fight corruption, but the real test will be whether political leaders are willing to confront the networks, interests and individuals that benefit from it.

The same applies to infrastructure.

Failed municipal systems leave South Africans vulnerable. Dysfunctional municipalities and cities can push people to look elsewhere for better opportunities. Businesses are unlikely to invest in places where they cannot rely on functioning infrastructure. A business cannot operate effectively without reliable electricity, water, roads and basic municipal services.

Governance failure therefore does not only affect basic needs. It affects whether someone gets a job. That is where the DA’s emphasis on local economies becomes particularly interesting. Functioning infrastructure creates the conditions in which businesses can operate, investment can happen and people can find opportunities. Government cannot create every job itself, but it can either create an environment in which economic activity can flourish or one in which businesses struggle simply to survive.

The manifesto’s focus on safety is equally important. South Africa’s safety crisis is one of its most pressing challenges. Recent parliamentary scrutiny and ongoing investigations have highlighted deep problems within the country’s policing and criminal justice systems. Organised crime and corruption have penetrated parts of the state, while communities continue to experience violent crime.

On the Cape Flats, gangsterism continues to destroy lives. Children grow up surrounded by violence, and too many families bury loved ones before their time. The DA argues that greater policing powers should be devolved to provinces and municipalities that have the capacity to exercise them. The party has consistently made this argument in relation to the Cape Flats and has called for greater responsibility, resources and accountability for local policing.

But here the DA faces an uncomfortable question. The Cape Flats is not some distant political territory. It is part of the Western Cape, where the DA has governed for years. The party therefore has to campaign for safer communities while also confronting the reality that communities under its government continue to experience devastating levels of violence.

Its argument that it needs greater policing powers may be legitimate. But greater powers must also come with greater accountability. And policing alone cannot solve the Cape Flats.

Gangsterism is not simply a policing problem. It is also a social and economic problem. It is about poverty, unemployment, drugs, trauma, broken families, education, opportunity and the psychological safety of communities. A police officer can arrest a gangster. A functioning society must also prevent another young person from seeing gangsterism as his or her only route to power, income or belonging.

This brings us back to the manifesto itself. The DA has a great plan. But South Africans have learned over many years that the greatest plans can be left hanging if there is not sufficient commitment to implementing them. Government cannot solve every problem.

This is perhaps the part of the manifesto that deserves more attention: what is the role of everyone else? Businesses have a role. Civil society has a role. Community organisations have a role. Residents have a role. Political parties have a role. Government has a role.

Liberal democracy was never supposed to mean that citizens simply hand their problems to government and wait for government to fix them. Government must create the conditions in which people can live with dignity, security and freedom. It must provide functioning institutions, reliable infrastructure and the rule of law. But citizens must also have the freedom and opportunity to shape the communities in which they live.

This is where political manifestos sometimes fall short.

Political parties are very good at telling communities what they will do for them. They are less good at asking communities what they themselves want to do, what they are already doing and what they need from government to do it better.

Perhaps it is time for that conversation to change. The question should not simply be whether the DA can get our towns and cities working. The bigger question is whether political parties can create conditions in which communities themselves can thrive.

The DA’s manifesto makes a compelling case that South Africa desperately needs government that works. But the real measure of any liberal political project should be more than functioning government. It should be whether that government creates freedom, opportunity and conditions for citizens to build functioning communities themselves.