DA gears up for Western Cape election campaign
The Democratic Alliance this weekend began the process of gearing up our party machinery for the 2014 election campaign in the Western Cape.
Over 500 DA public representatives, key national and provincial leaders and campaign staff gathered at our Election Indaba in Cape Town to discuss our provincial election campaign strategy.
All of our structures were briefed on our election target of retaining the Western Cape with an increased majority. We do not want a majority for its own sake. We just want a clear and resounding mandate from the citizens of the Western Cape to keep delivering for all.
There was consensus amongst delegates that we must present voters with a credible offer of a government that delivers the opportunity for a better life. We will make this campaign about our track record in delivering to those citizens disadvantaged by apartheid.
Since we came into power:
- 76% of the Western Cape Government's budget has been spent in poor communities, with DA municipalities creating 31,000 jobs in the past year and the provincial government creating 60 000 jobs in the second half of 2012/13
- We have increased the matric pass rate every year, reversing the declining trend under the ANC.
- In 2011, for the first time ever, a Khayelitsha school was in the top ten performing schools in the Western Cape
- The Western Cape has the best basic service delivery record in the country: 99.1% of households have access to piped water, 93.4% to electricity and 96.9% have toilet facilities
- We have instituted systems to root out corruption and improve financial management
The DA will ask the people of the Western Cape to give us another five years to take our service delivery to the next level, especially in our poorest communities.
In delivering our message of hope to the people, we will rely on sophisticated ground, media, direct marketing and online campaigning.
In the Western Cape we are calling this project Masisebenze, "we are working".
As part of Masisebenze, the DA has already begun our activist training through blue blitz weekends where we stage political activity in every part of the province.
Leading up to the election our public representatives and professional organizers will collaborate on extensive door-to-door efforts to take our message to voters. There will also be a big focus on registration campaigns and councillor visibility.
We want councillors to communicate to people how the DA is delivering in their ward through capital and economic development projects.
And we will back this ground campaigning up with direct marketing initiatives like call-centres, targeted social media campaigns and advertising in broadcast and print media.
But we are also mindful of the cynical politics of our opponents.
Delegates at the Indaba shared experiences of our opponents stoking of violent protest, attempts to bribe DA councillors and the negative racially-charged messaging they continue to spread.
Having lost the battle on delivery, they turn to race as it is the only card they have left to play.
But this argument too is losing credibility. We are countering the ANC's propaganda head-on with our ‘Know Your DA' campaign. People are starting to see the truth that we fought apartheid and we are not bringing it back.
In the end, this election is going to be a contest between two competing track records of governing the Western Cape.
Voters can choose to go back to the days of corruption, racial politics and lack of service delivery under the ANC. Or they can choose five more years of steadily improving service delivery, job creation and clean government under the DA.
We will make this choice very clear as we head into the election campaign.
Statement issued by Ivan Meyer, DA Leader in the Western Cape, May 26 2013
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