Note to Editors: The following speech was delivered today by DA Cape Town Mayoral Candidate, Geordin Hill-Lewis, at the launch of his More Jobs Pledge, in Cape Town today.
Good morning, everyone.
Thank you to the team at VOYAGE Yachts for hosting us here today.
There is a reason I wanted to launch our jobs pledge in a place like this.
Look around this factory and you can see what a job-creating city actually looks like.
A yacht leaving this floor is not just a beautiful boat. It carries the work of designers, engineers, electricians, carpenters, composite specialists, upholsterers and local suppliers. It represents skills learned, salaries earned, families supported and South African workmanship sold to the world.
South Africa is now the world’s second-largest producer of recreational catamarans, after France, with Cape Town as the hub. We’re now exporting more than R4 billion worth of these ships and boats made in Cape Town every year. These exports have grown a whopping 217% since 2015.
World-class products, made right here by Capetonians.
That is what I want this city to be known for. For making things, building things, exporting things and creating jobs.
Because a job changes a life.
Jobs put food on the table, ensure rent can be paid, that school shoes can be bought. The freedom to plan for the future and the hope that your children will have opportunities you never had.
In a country where unemployment has robbed millions of people of that hope, creating jobs has to be our absolute obsession.
Five years ago, we said we wanted Cape Town to become the City of Hope.
Today, we have proof that this hope is becoming real.
Since the start of this term, 418 000 more jobs have been created in Cape Town.
Almost half of all the new jobs created across South Africa’s eight metros over this period were created here.
Cape Town created more jobs than Tshwane, Ekurhuleni, Johannesburg, Buffalo City, Nelson Mandela Bay and Mangaung combined.
But the most important thing about 418 000 jobs is not the number itself. It is the people behind it. The 418 000 people who five years ago did not have the hope that comes with a job, but now do.
So today I am making the third of my five pledges to the people of Cape Town.
If you give the DA another term of government in Cape Town, we will work to create at least another 500 000 jobs over the next five years. Half a million more jobs.
So that by the end of the next term, Cape Town will have added one million jobs since Capetonians first entrusted me and the DA to build this City of Hope.
Imagine what that would mean for poverty, for families, for crime, for young people, and for the confidence of an entire city.
That is the Cape Town we are working towards. That is not just a Cape Town working for all. But a Cape Town where all are working.
But let us be clear, government does not create most jobs. Businesses do. Entrepreneurs do. Investors do. People with an idea, a skill and the courage to take a risk do.
The job of a good city government is to make it easier for them to succeed.
That means getting the basics right.
Reliable services. Infrastructure that keeps pace with growth. Faster approvals. Less red tape. And a government that sees a business opening its doors as something to celebrate, not obstruct.
This approach is working.
Over this term, Cape Town has invested around R40 billion in infrastructure. In 2025/26, the City delivered a South African-record R12.2 billion in capital expenditure. That’s more than double what we invested in the first year of this term.
Around three quarters of our infrastructure investment directly benefits lower-income households.
That is what we mean when we say we are building a city that works for everyone.
Good government creates the platform. Private enterprise creates the opportunity.
You can see that partnership right here in Cape Town’s boatbuilding industry.
That did not happen because politicians decided to build yachts.
It happened because talented people built excellent businesses and because Cape Town became a place where those businesses could invest, hire, expand and export.
Our job is to help many more businesses do exactly that.
We will continue to cut red tape that blocks businesses from growing.
We will eliminate unnecessary fees where we can.
And we will continue investing in the energy, water and road infrastructure without which no growing economy can function.
All business people and entrepreneurs with a great idea must know that this is the city where I should try it.
The business with three employees must know this is the City where I can become a business with thirty.
And the young Capetonian must know that this is where I have the best chance of finding a job.
So 418,000 jobs is not a reason to become complacent.
It is a reason to become even more ambitious.
Because if Cape Town can create almost half of all the new metro jobs in South Africa over one term, then we can create another half a million in the next.
And if we can do it here, we can show what is possible for the whole country.
Cape Town is proof that good government matters. It is proof that a people-driven economy works.
And it is proof of the message I want to take across our country:
That South Africa can work — for everyone.
Cape Town is showing the way.
A city where hope is not a slogan, but something you can tangibly see in your community.
That is my pledge.
More jobs. More opportunity. More hope.
For every community, and for every Capetonian.
Let’s take Cape Town forward — for all.