LISTEN | DA’s Steenhuisen confident party will retain grip on Cape Town

DA leader John Steenhuisen told journalists on Wednesday that early predictions showed the party would again govern Cape Town.

“We can confirm that we will govern the City of Cape Town with our own majority. We are predicting that it will be about 58% of the vote, so the voters of Cape Town have given the DA another five years to carry on delivering to them there,” said Steenhuisen.

Listen to what he had to say: 

However, the Electoral Commission (IEC) said this was not guaranteed as the results had not yet been audited.

Despite this, Steenhuisen was celebrating.

Speaking at the IEC’s national results centre in Pretoria he said: “I think the Cape Town results, along with the DA’s performance in other metros, as well as the great victory in the uMngeni municipality yesterday, have shown that the DA had a significant recovery of the ground that we lost in the 2019 election.”

While the DA is set on victory, TimesLIVE reported on Wednesday that of the Western Cape's 30 municipalities — of which five are district councils — only nine had a clear majority, and 15 were hung councils.

The five district councils will know their final results by the end of the month when local councils have elected their representatives.

Only eight of its municipalities were hung in 2016.

An optimistic Steenhuisen said: “When you look at the projected outcomes for all of the metros now, across the country, the DA is going to grow and improve from 2019.”

Steenhuisen said that the projected results were encouraging because “we took action in 2019 to recommit the party to our core values and principles and to move away from some of the errors we made in the past”.

Steenhuisen, who started his political career in eThekwini, said he was particularly pleased with the party’s performance there.

“In eThekwini, for example, we have been able to win nine wards off the ANC. For the first time in the history of that municipality, it is going to fall below 50% majority for the ANC and that is significant.”

Steenhuisen said he was excited about the additional five years the party has been granted to govern Cape Town.

“Our mayoral candidate there, Geordin Hill-Lewis, I think will be the youngest metro mayor in the country, at 34. Wait until you see how GHL delivers in the City of Cape Town. It is going to be a great new era for the city.”

Steenhuisen said Hill-Lewis had unveiled a seven-point plan which looks at shielding residents from load-shedding, safety and security, housing delivery, water and sanitation, and infrastructure.

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