Election special: What the DA promises Cape Town’s majority

GroundUp: What will the DA do about sanitation in informal settlements?

Mnqasela: Access to sanitation is key to ensuring human dignity. Where the DA governs, we have prioritised the improvement of access to sanitation services. According to the 2012 Sanitation Report published by the Department of Water Affairs, the Western Cape and Gauteng are the provinces with the highest percentage of communities with adequate sanitation services. In the Western Cape, 99.1% of households have access to piped water and 90.5% have access to flush toilets (the highest in the country). In the City of Cape Town, the number of toilets provided in informal settlements has increased from 14 591 in 2006 to 40 700 in 2013 (an increase of 278%). We will continue to prioritise this.

What will the DA do about transport in Cape Town?

Mnqasela: The improvement of public transport is a strategic focus area for the City of Cape Town. Since 2007, the City has been working on the first phase of an Integrated Rapid Transit (IRT) system. The first leg is the Bus Rapid Transport (BRTs) system, which emphasises integration with other modes of transport, including minibus taxis, but especially rail. The IRT is designed to give residents and commuters greater choice, mobility and access to opportunities. The MyCiti bus routes have been extended round the city and include areas such as Salt River, Duynefontein and Melkbosstrand. Plans are also on track to expand the N2 Express routes to Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain.

What will the DA do about the housing issue?

Mnqasela: The DA will use a range of housing options where we govern. We will: · Make state land available for urban densification

· Speed up the expansion of housing opportunities within urban boundaries on well-located land: social housing, subsidised bonded housing, serviced sites and completed units

· Ensure that all beneficiaries of state-subsidised property receive the title deeds

· Increase security of tenure in informal areas by lifting the restrictions on the sale of state-subsidised housing (allowing new owners to sell their properties after two years). This must be done on the clear understanding that anyone who has benefited from a state-subsidised property before, cannot do so again

· Abolish transfer duties on land transfers for all first time, owner-occupied residential purchases under R2 million, as well as for purchases by over 65-year-olds

· Extend the subsidy programme aimed at the low-income “gap “housing market (those who earn above the income threshold for RDP housing, but cannot afford a bank loan) to assist them in accessing private housing finance

· Pilot the use of flexible subsidies for housing delivery (particularly for serviced sites, finance-linked subsidy programmes and subsidised rental housing)

Masizole Mnqasela. Photo courtesy of Masizole Mnqasela.

What will the DA do about the crime issue?

Mnqasela: We will work to keep citizens safe by:

· Reinstating the specialised units (units for drugs, gangs, sexual offences and rural safety) to target specific crimes

· Establishing a judicial commission of inquiry to determine the causes of police brutality and to identify solutions to the problem

· Developing strict rules for police responses to public protests to make sure that the police are able to manage these protests in a peaceful, non-violent manner

· Making sure that all members have the tools that they need to do their job, including vehicles, firearms, bullet proof vests, equipment for crowd control, and IT equipment

· Removing SAPS members if they abuse their power or participate in corrupt or criminal activities

· Getting communities more involved in preventing crime, including strengthening the role of community police forums, neighborhood watches and community safety structures

· Ensuring that criminals are caught and then prosecuted by employing more detectives, making sure that crime laboratories work, having one fingerprint system that all investigators can access and having enough courts to deal with criminal cases quickly

· Making the criminal justice system more responsive to the needs of the victims of crime by establishing a Victims of Crime Fund to ensure that victims have access to services and assistance and keeping the persons directly affected by a criminal case informed about its progress

What will you do to help people who are hungry?

Mnqasela: About 10.2 million South Africans continue to live below the food line. When in national government the DA will continue to offer support to the country’s most vulnerable citizens through social grants.

But while the DA will continue to pay social grants to help the poor, we will make job creation the top priority wherever we govern.

How are you going to finance all this?

Mnqasela: Streamlined government and a focus on good financial management and the elimination of wastage and corruption can mean that service delivery can be comprehensively improved, while maintaining a reasonable budget deficit.

If we can grow the economy at 8%, we can double the national budget in 10 years, which means that more money will be available for education, health, housing, sanitation and other forms of basic service delivery.

How will you help the Marikana Settlement in Philippi?

Mnqasela: The DA and the City of Cape Town understand the plight of people who have been waiting a long time for a house and have been working with the Provincial Government of the Western Cape to find new, innovative solutions to housing within the realm of policy and legislation determined by the national government. The City provides the most extensive suite of services to informal settlements in the country. Indeed, the City is currently engaged in an electrification of informal settlements campaign, providing free electricity to informal settlements that are not in the City’s supply area but have not received services from Eskom.

Do you believe your township support is growing?

Mnqasela: Support for the DA is growing across the country, because so many people share our values and trust us to work hard to improve their lives. This includes voters in South Africa’s townships. In the local elections in 2011, nearly one out of every four South Africans (24.1%) from all walks of life voted for the DA. The DA also continues to make important gains in by-elections.

Next we will publish an interview with the ANC.