DA manifesto summary

Housing and title deeds

• Overhauling the housing allocation system for fairness and transparency, including independent oversight and regular audits. p.47
• Delivering title deeds for state-subsidised housing to ensure legal ownership and support the housing market. p.47
• Releasing unutilised state-owned land for mixed-use and affordable housing developments. p.47
• Investing in land assembly and simplifying regulations to support affordable housing delivery. p.47
• Prioritising well-located state land for medium-density flats instead of free-standing properties. p.47

Water and sanitation

• Ensure that money for water and sanitation is spent only on these services, preventing misuse or theft by officials. p.12
• Maximise reinvestment of water and sanitation revenue into maintaining and expanding infrastructure, including fixing leaks and upgrading systems. p.16
• Build and maintain clean water infrastructure and ensure access to flushing toilets, aiming to eradicate bucket and pit toilets. p.16
• Use public-private partnerships to improve water treatment, reduce losses, and train technical staff. p.16p.17
• Increase municipal water resilience by establishing multiple water sources and ongoing maintenance of existing infrastructure. p.17p.18

Electricity and energy

• Empowering municipalities to buy and sell their own electricity directly from private companies without national government approval. p.22
• Reinvesting electricity revenue into maintaining, repairing, and expanding electrical infrastructure. p.22
• Enabling residents to sell surplus electricity back to the grid at a fair rate, increasing overall supply. p.22
• Investing in cost-effective Waste-to-Energy infrastructure to lower electricity costs and create local jobs. p.37
• Managing electricity demand by retrofitting buildings and providing solar rooftop geysers to residents. p.23

Roads and public transport

• Improve public transport by planning for connectivity and integrating all transport modes with a single 'smart' ticket system. p.46
• Prioritise maintenance and upgrading of roads, intersections, traffic signals, and signage to reduce congestion and improve safety. p.46
• Leverage public-private partnerships to finance and expand transportation infrastructure for economic development. p.46
• Continue advocating for the devolution of passenger rail management to improve safety and reliability. p.46
• Factor climate change, maintenance backlogs, and population growth into municipal planning for sustainable transport infrastructure. p.46

Waste and refuse collection

No summary for this topic. Here are the manifesto’s own words instead.

Safety and policing

• Empower local authorities to fight crime with a decentralised approach, allowing municipalities to address local crime challenges effectively. p.27p.28
• Invest in smart policing technologies like CCTV, AI pattern recognition, and crime data analysis to enhance municipal police responsiveness. p.28
• Grant municipalities greater investigative powers to gather evidence, conduct forensic analysis, and collaborate with the National Prosecuting Authority. p.28
• Improve collaboration between SAPS, municipal police, and private security to enhance visibility and response to crime. p.28
• Support community patrols and neighbourhood watch programmes with training, logistical support, and financial incentives to increase visible policing. p.30

Jobs and the local economy

• Create jobs and grow local economies by cutting red tape, supporting small businesses, improving public transport, and fixing infrastructure. p.4p.7
• Ensure a stable power supply to lower costs, increase productivity, and create jobs in local economies. p.21
• Build power plants and upgrade grids to create construction and maintenance jobs and provide reliable electricity. p.24
• Implement "investment-ready" toolkits to attract and retain investment, making cities and towns competitive for business and job creation. p.44
• Support business investment and entrepreneurship by reforming economic policies to focus on poverty rather than race. p.45

Rates, tariffs and municipal finance

• Conduct an immediate audit of billing systems to fix inaccuracies and ensure correct billing and revenue collection. p.11
• Explore bulk procurement of a standardised financial software system to reduce costs and improve financial management consistency. p.11
• Enforce credit control to ensure municipalities collect outstanding debts and prevent unrecoverable debt accumulation. p.11
• Regularly update and maintain accurate municipal valuation rolls to improve property tax revenue and fairness in billing. p.11
• Ringfence revenue from water and electricity services to ensure it is spent on maintaining and upgrading infrastructure. p.12

Corruption, governance and accountability

• End cadre deployment in local government and ensure merit-based appointments for competent personnel. p.4p.10
• Enforce a zero-tolerance approach to corruption and mismanagement, holding municipal employees accountable. p.11
• Establish fully functioning public accounts and audit committees in DA-run municipalities for oversight. p.11
• Make public procurement transparent by disclosing details of all goods and services procured. p.11
• Work with pre-approved panels of qualified contractors to cut corruption in infrastructure procurement. p.12

Informal settlements and land

• Take decisive action to prevent illegal land invasions and ensure fair land allocation and occupation. p.48
• Put in place programmes to prevent illegal land grabs by empowering municipal police to respond promptly. p.48
• Ensure responsive community hotlines for reporting the construction of informal structures before they become permanent. p.48
• Make provisions for the rapid release of land to prevent occupations and ensure necessary services are delivered. p.48
• Says it has already implemented the 'Title-Deed-to-Door' programme to deliver title deeds directly to beneficiaries. p.48

Support for indigent households

• Will improve service delivery to vulnerable households by fixing billing issues and ensuring indigent support reaches qualifying households. p.10
• Will ensure free basic services reach intended recipients by using local government funding responsibly and allocating part of the equitable share for these services. p.12
• Will run registration campaigns to ensure every qualifying household is signed up for free basic services like water and electricity. p.12
• Says it has already installed solar geysers in indigent households to reduce power consumption and assist with basic needs. p.21

By-law and municipal law enforcement

• Enforcing building regulations to ensure community safety against fires and disasters. p.30
• Strictly enforcing traffic and parking laws to improve traffic flow and access for emergency vehicles. p.30
• Strictly enforcing air pollution by-laws to meet national standards and reduce medical costs. p.37
• Enforcing and re-evaluating liquor license by-laws to minimise negative impacts on communities. p.37
• Appointing Environmental Health Officers to enforce health standards, pollution, and sanitation controls. p.38

Youth, sport, arts and libraries

• Partner with private sector organisations to maintain and improve public spaces like libraries, parks, and sports facilities. p.7p.36
• Facilitate agreements between communities and private sector partners to meet community needs and improve public spaces. p.36
• Identify public spaces needing investment by consulting with underserved local communities. p.36
• Create opportunities for skills training, community events, and local economic activity through public space improvements. p.36
• Says it has already built on the successes of the Adopt-a-School Foundation’s programme. p.36