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The Democratic Alliance (DA) is proud to today announce our seventh pledge to the people of Cape Town, which is to clean up our Mother City’s public spaces, streets and waterways.

Over the past two years, Cape Town has been through what feels like a long and dark winter. The Covid pandemic, combined with the accelerating collapse of the national government, cost the lives of thousands of Capetonians, and the livelihoods of even more of our city’s residents. The unprecedented challenges posed by the pandemic took a severe toll on Cape Town. Our world-class tourism sector ground to a near-complete halt. People lost family members, jobs and homes. And we have all seen how, over the past few months, the litter and pollution in our public spaces, streets and waterways has increased as we understandably diverted our focus almost exclusively to dealing with the pandemic.

For a while, it felt like this long Covid winter might never end. But, as we have done so many times before, Cape Town will overcome. This long Covid winter is coming to an end, and Spring is on its way back for Cape Town.

But before we can welcome millions of tourists and the jobs they create back to Cape Town for a joyful spring and summer, and before we can hopefully enjoy a normal festive season with friends and family, we have work to do to get our city back in good shape.

Dit is tyd om Kaapstad se vere weer ‘n slag ordentlik reg te skud. 

And there is no better way to do that, than with a good old-fashioned Spring Clean.

With the long Covid winter hopefully behind us for good, it is time to clean up Cape Town. Residents as well as the city government all have key roles to play in making sure that we clean out the literal and metaphorical debris left behind by the Covid pandemic. For our city to get back on the front foot as quickly as possible, we must urgently clean up the environment within which we all live, and on which we all depend.

Like the people of Lavender Hill have done with this beautiful food garden, it is time to turn dilapidated public spaces into clean, safe and hopeful areas we can all share.

From the city’s side, I pledge that, if the DA is re-elected by the people of Cape Town on 1 November, we will significantly increase investment in the basic services that keep our streets free of litter, our parks safe and well-maintained, and our waterways free of pollution and sewerage. There is much work for the city to do on this front, and I will tackle it head on.

But I am also calling on the people of Cape Town to help by doing their part. We have all suffered during this long Covid winter. I know that many of us feel despondent about the future.

But that is no reason for us to poison our environment and public spaces with litter and illegal dumping. These are problems that no government can solve on its own. These are problems that can only be solved through a partnership between the City and the people of Cape Town, where each and every one of us takes pride in playing our part to stop littering and dumping.

That is why I also pledge today to strengthen the relationship between the City and the many organisations that work to keep Cape Town clean. I intend to work proactively with civic organisations that mobilise communities to make Cape Town cleaner and healthier. As part of this, the DA will investigate a whole new approach to public hygiene by providing improved infrastructure and incentivising residents to keep their neighbourhoods clean, while holding those who do not respect our public spaces meaningfully accountable for acts like illegal dumping and littering.

Finally, my commitment to end load shedding in Cape Town by embracing renewable energy is the single most important thing we can do to reduce our city’s carbon footprint. Largely thanks to Eskom’s reliance on dirty coal, South Africa is currently the 12th biggest source of greenhouse gases in the world, with Cape Town producing over 22 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. But a full 64% of this is due entirely to our reliance on Eskom. Replacing our reliance on Eskom coal with renewable sources like solar and wind energy will enable us to significantly reduce Cape Town’s carbon footprint over the next five years.

We all know that Cape Town is the most naturally-beautiful city in the entire world. But living in a city so blessed by nature also confers certain responsibilities upon the government and people of Cape Town. We all have a duty to act as responsible custodians over our beautiful Mother City, so that our children and their children can also enjoy Cape Town’s beauty one day.

Together, the DA and the people of Cape Town can make sure that the cleanliness and health of our public spaces, streets and waterways reflect our pride in living in the most beautiful city in the world.

To recap, the DA will:

• Increase investment in cleaning up litter, pollution and improving the maintenance of public spaces
• Build stronger relationships with civic organisations that help keep Cape Town clean and healthy
• Provide stronger incentives and better infrastructure for residents to keep neighbourhoods clean, while holding offenders accountable
• Reduce Cape Town’s carbon footprint by embracing renewable energy to end load shedding

Issued DA City of Cape Mayoral Candidate Geordin Hill-Lewis