On 18th May I grudgingly voted for the DA. My vote in their favour was to foster their continued control of the City of Cape Town and the greater good of the country. On a personal level, however, I have had bad experiences with the party and had very little reason to vote for them.
Personal sentiments aside, since 2006 the DA has transformed the former ANC-controlled City of Cape Town, a cesspit of corruption, into a model of clean governance. For more than a year after the DA took over, it spent some time eradicating the rot, putting systems in place to ensure clean governance and good public management.
Today, the City is a vastly different place. Workers are out early in the morning cleaning the streets; disaster management is on the ball; traffic control has improved; roads are being built and fixed, and some form of law and order prevails. Gone is the mismanagement of the past; gone are the patronage, irregular tender allocations, and cadre payroll.
Unlike any other party, as an opposition, the DA teaches its members the true meaning of constitutional democracy, how to campaign within wards and communities and how to grow a responsible citizenry.
Today they are growing a cadre of youth leaders schooled in the basics of democracy, human rights, and what it means to be a loyal parliamentary opposition unlike the ANC that produces dregs like Julius Malema, Floyd Shivambu, Sicelo Shicekas, Jacki Selebi and the like.
The DA's rich political traditions were inherited from Helen Suzman and Tony Leon whose voices were writ large across the political landscape as the only true voices of opposition. Continuing in this tradition, the DA as a government, has done exceptionally well in this election.