The DA’s manifesto is a promise to people to get their towns and cities working. And if you are asking South Africans to trust you, you should be willing to stand in front of them, look them in the eye, and explain exactly what you intend to do with that trust.
That is why, over the coming weeks, I will embark on the DA’s Working For All Tour, with major public town hall meetings in five of South Africa’s biggest metros.
I will be in Tshwane on 18 August, eThekwini on 26 August, Ekurhuleni on 18 September, Nelson Mandela Bay on 21 September, and Johannesburg on 24 September.
These are not ordinary campaign stops.
The future of South Africa will be decided in our local governments, the level of government closest to the people.
For years, millions of people have watched the towns and cities they love deteriorate around them.
I refuse to accept that this is simply what South African cities and towns must become.
My experience in local government has taught me the opposite.
I have seen what begins to happen when a government gets the basics right, spends public money carefully, appoints capable people, invests in infrastructure and understands that its job is to serve residents.
Things start working again. And when things work, something even more important starts returning – hope.
That is what motivates this tour.
I want people in Tshwane, eThekwini, Ekurhuleni, Nelson Mandela Bay and Johannesburg to hear directly from me what a DA government will do differently after the November election.
We will explain how we will build professional, corruption-free municipalities, get water flowing and the lights working, fight for safer communities, clean up neglected towns and cities and turn local government into an engine for investment, opportunity and jobs.
But I also want to listen.
I want to hear from the residents who wait days for water, small business owners trying to survive another outage, mothers worried about her children walking home, and young people looking for their first job.
Because ultimately this election is not about municipalities as institutions.
It is about the people who live in them.
No South African should have to buy their way out of government failure just to live a normal life. Working government cannot be something reserved for the wealthy, or for a handful of well-run towns and cities.
It must work for everyone.
And that is why I will ask thousands of South Africans at these events to make a simple choice in November:
Stop accepting decline as inevitable.
Choose change that works.
Because when local government works, South Africa works.
And South Africa can work – for everyone.