Confident Leon predicts gains

2006-02-27 13:05

Cape Town - Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon expects the party to win back a "significant number" of municipalities lost to the ANC, through floor-crossing, during Wednesday's election.

Leon started a two-day whirlwind tour of "winnable municipalities" in the province on Monday.

"We are very confident that the DA will do very well across the whole of the Western Cape so we will, accordingly, be visiting Caledon, Hermanus, Elim, Napier, Bredasdorp, Struisbaai, Robertson, Malmesbury, Piketberg, Riversdale, Oudtshoorn and Plettenberg Bay," he said before leaving Cape Town.

"Our canvassing results show that a significant number of municipalities lost to the ANC through floor-crossing, not through the ballot box will, on Wednesday, return to the DA in a democratic poll."

Leon said the cities and towns of the Western Cape told a simple story: DA governments brought success, and ANC governments failure.

"On our visits we will outline our plan to save the Western Cape from ANC mismanagement, maladministration, nepotism, cronyism and corruption," he said.

The Robertson-Breede River-Winelands municipality, for example, had been rated by the national government as one of the top 20 municipalities in the country.

It had also been named one of South Africa's top 300 empowerment companies, and one of its towns, Montagu, "Town of the Year" for 2002/3.

"It has a corruption-free council, and its financial management is so good that the municipality has been used to train other municipalities to manage their money," he said.

Quality services

Another example was the Bredasdorp-Cape Agulhas municipality, where the DA had delivered quality services and implemented poverty relief, including a subsidy programme that helped poor families pay their accounts.

"Compare these success stories of DA governance to cases where the DA used to govern, but where the ANC took over in floor-crossing, or where small parties gave control to the ANC."

In the Caledon-Theewaterskloof municipality, among others, the DA won more votes than the ANC, but a small party put the ANC in government.

Since then, the municipality had been crippled by corruption, mismanagement and political instability.

It was among a minority in the province that had been placed under Project Consolidate.

"The choice is clear for voters in the Western Cape. If you vote DA, you get service delivery and clean government.

"If you vote ANC, you get failed delivery and corruption. Voting for a third party is the same as voting ANC. And if you don't vote, you get the government you deserve," Leon said.

- SAPA