Note to editors: The following speech was delivered today by Patricia de Lille at the DA's Cape Town campaign launch in Belhar, Cape Town.

Thank you for inviting me to your community today. For the DA, government is about engagement; it is about interaction with the community; it is about listening. Above all, it is about building a relationship.

I am here in Belhar today to talk about that relationship for the next five years and to ask this question: we have built a great city as the DA but how can we make it even better? What more can we as the DA do to serve you? How can we continue to actually deliver services and a better life for all, rather than just promise one like some parties do.

Despite our successes, there are still challenges that we face in building an opportunity city and making sure that Cape Town actually is a city for all the people. I don't want to take your vote for granted; I don't want to say to you that you must always vote DA and never ask questions.

I want to ask you to lend us your vote for five years and give us the opportunity to deliver to you. If you are not happy after that time, then you must take your vote somewhere else. That is the beauty of the democracy we fought so hard for.

So I ask you to lend us your vote. I ask you to lend us your vote based on what we have done and what we will do. We need to build on our strengths and our record in government. The DA has done so much to change this city and bring people together.

You can see it in the houses that now have free water and electricity; you can see it in the sports and youth centres we have built and you can see it in the communities where people can walk around without fear from criminals and gangs.

But our project of building the open, opportunity society for all is not over. It is just beginning. I believe that the greatest challenge Cape Town still faces is poverty. It is true that we have done much to help the poor; for those people who cannot pay, we have provided free water, electricity, refuse removal and sanitation.

We have built roads and community centres. We are building the connections that link the city. But we could never defeat poverty completely in 5 years. Our history of inequality and oppression will take a long time to fix.

But I can tell you today that our approach is working. Since the DA came into office, we have doubled the number of houses built each year. We are building the Integrated Rapid Transport system that will link the entire metro.

Every year, we register more poor people on the indigent database, which is the best in the country. But fighting poverty is a step by step process and we must realise a few things.

Poverty knows no political affiliation. When you are poor you are poor. We need to take the politics out of poverty. We need to always deliver to poor people no matter who they voted for. We must accept responsibility. We are the government in this city. With your vote, we will be the government again.

But that responsibility must be based on two approaches to poverty: poverty alleviation and poverty reduction. Poverty alleviation must come in the form of making sure that everyone who needs help gets it.

Your councilor Desmond Jaftha says that in Belhar, one of your biggest challenges is backyarders in a community with lots of open land for housing. Desmond, if elected, we will accelerate housing delivery, like we have done over the past five years. We will begin a programme of voluntary registration for backyarders so that they can get onto the city's system and will qualify for free water and electricity so that they don't have to be exploited by their landlords. Desmond, together we can fight poverty.

One of your community members, Marilize Stroebel, says that in Belhar, especially in extension 13, most of the people survive on grants from the national government. Marilize, that problem is not limited to Belhar. There are too many people whose only source of income is a grant. We don't want to build a welfare state in Cape Town. We want to create an environment which creates jobs and investment - this is the best way to fight poverty. To do this we will continue to build the infrastructure that builds employment for the people of Cape Town.

But the fight against poverty means little if people don't feel safe. Building a safer city must always be a foundation to create opportunity. Only when you don't live in fear do you feel that you and members of your family can go out and get a job.

But how do you make people safer? We need to partner with communities. We can't do it alone. We have done much to fight crime, thanks to neighbourhood watches and CCTV cameras, among other interventions.

We have made communities safer. In the CBD, we have reduced crime by 90% since the year 2000. But sometimes people feel that crime has moved from town to the other areas of the metro. There is no denying that criminals and gangs look for their own opportunities.

But we are building a community approach to crime. There is a neighbourhood watch here in Belhar as in other areas of the city. It has done good work in allowing people to feel safe walking the streets at night. The City's task team has partnered with twelve neighbourhood watches already to provide training and resources like radios, jackets and bicycles.

But one of the leaders of your neighbourhood watch, Robert Scholtz, says that the neighbourhood watch here doesn't have radios and are not as effective as they could be. The city must provide people with the training and resources to help themselves so that together, we can change our society for the better.

Robert, we will look to getting you and your people radios to help in the fight against crime. And we will continue to work with communities to make the metro safer. Only by building a safe city where people can be employed can we be more inclusive; only then can people feel like the city truly belongs to them.

But that is not all we can do to build up our communities because our communities are our strength as a united metro. To do this we have to make sure that we have sufficient transport and community and youth centres.

I know that there is a new youth centre here in Belhar. And we need more across the city. But it is also about social services like healthcare and libraries, and schools for young children. The city has an excellent record socially.

There are over 100 health clinics around the metro where people can get primary health care. But sometimes, too many people need to see the doctor and some have to wait.

Charlene Felix says that the day hospital here in Belhar is good but you need to wake up at 4:00 in the morning to make sure that you see the doctor that day. Charlene, we are building capacity in health resources to improve them even more.

A new system being introduced by the DA will mean that through computer link-ups, a child in Belhar could be checked by a doctor from another clinic anywhere in the metro, thus easing the numbers. Together Charlene, the city will do even more to make sure that our citizens are healthy and always get the treatment that they deserve.

We want to serve you and because of that we have cleaned corruption out of the city. The best people are in the rights jobs and can deliver services to everyone. We even have a forensic unit that investigates any instance of corruption in the city which no one is safe from, even the mayor.

We will continue to ensure that this city is corruption free and that its money is used for the people and not for politicians!

In this election year and all years, we want to serve you. We do not take your vote for granted. If you lend us your vote, we will continue to serve you each and every day. Remember, we answer to you all the time, not just when elections come around.

Voting is not just about you. It is about our country and its future. One day, your children will ask you what you did to change South Africa. If you vote, you can tell your children you took this opportunity to deliver the kind of city we all deserve.

If you vote, you can tell your children you did your part to build a better future for them! We stand before you asking you to help us to continue to build the opportunity city together.

Come May 18, please vote and vote DA!

Because the DA delivers for all!

Issued by the Democratic Alliance, April 2 2011

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