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The Democratic Alliance have, since the start of the year, interacted with hundreds of thousands of voters in the Free State in order to listen to them, to learn more about their needs and aspirations and ultimately to ask for their vote in the Local Government Elections that will take place on the 1st of November.

We have been astounded again and again by the resilience that Free Staters are showing despite being at the receiving end of everything that is wrong with local government in our province.

Local governments and the poor (and in some cases non-existent) state of service delivery by municipalities are only adding to the burdens and hardships faced by all communities in the Free State.

Whether people live in Petrusburg in the Southern Free State, Qwa Qwa in the Eastern Free State, Parys in the Northern Free State, Welkom in the Goldfields or even the capital Bloemfontein – they are facing, have faced or will very soon again face taps running dry and the constant struggle to get hold of even the most basic provision of clean water needed for household use.

A consistent and continuous lack of dealing in an effective way with sewerage, household refuge and the maintenance of existing infrastructure like roads, street lighting and storm water has been the hallmark of Free State municipalities over the last years.

Add to this their inability to collect revenue and the perennial underspending of infrastructure grants received from the National and Provincial Government which should have enabled the upgrading and establishment of modern, functional infrastructure in townships and informal settlements and it is glaringly obvious that all communities in the Free State have been failed by the local governments they elected in 2016.

As the official opposition in the Free State, we are proud to report today that we have embarked on an election campaign this year during which we were able to put a real alternative on the table for voters in every municipality in the province.

Our offer to voters in the province has been strengthened by the fact that our manifesto promises about good basic service delivery, clean governance and the creation of a culture of accountability and responsiveness are backed up by the fact that we have successfully implemented these strategies where we are in government in the top South African municipalities.

Today we again say to Free Staters that we can get things done here in the same way in which we are already delivering the best municipal governments in places like Cape Town, Mossel Bay and Stellenbosch in the Western Cape as well as Kouga in the Eastern Cape and Midvaal in Gauteng.

We have been heartened during our campaign by the fact that increasingly more and more Free Staters have expressed the sentiment that they realise that they should expect a continuation of the poor service delivery, maladministration and corruption that were served to them when the majority believed the same promises that is being made again this year five years ago: Promises of better days that will come because poor performing and corrupt councillors would be removed from office, of capable officials that would be appointed and money that would be spent wisely.

We are therefore confident that if Free Staters choose wisely and make informed decisions on the 1st of November, that their votes could bring the change that every single municipality in our province desperately needs.

Our candidates, all 352 of them, stand ready to serve if elected. On Election Day, they and the party agents of the Party will oversee the voting processes in every single one of the 319 wards in the province to ensure that free and fair elections are delivered.

Issued by DA Provincial Chairperson and Campaigns Manager Werner Horn