DA Innovation Summit a resounding success

4 February 2021

The first virtual DA Innovation Summit that took place today was a resounding success.

The Western Cape Premier, a number of DA Mayors, senior government leaders as well as experts participated in the summit and discussed and unpacked issues around innovation in the time of Covid, technology and economic development and energy and water resilience.

Around 200 DA public representatives attended the Summit and had the opportunity to pose questions to the four panels that convened in the course of the day. They will now take the innovations and ideas that were shared today back to their own local governments to run with the baton and take the innovations even further.

A theme throughout the day, that underpinned all the discussions, was the crucial importance of innovation in all spheres of government and the way that DA governments constantly push the boundaries and change the game to improve people's lives.

This was especially evident the past eleven months where the Western Cape was head and shoulders above the rest of the country when it came to balancing a healthcare response to Covid-19 while also protecting livelihoods.

As DA Leader John Steenhuisen said in his opening address: "(With this summit) we get to recognise the incredible value of innovating in government. We get to speak about and showcase some of the successes the DA has achieved, and we hopefully get to spark some ideas among each other for more such successes in future".

The last words of the day belonged to the DA's Federal Chairperson Helen Zille who concluded the summit. She said that "people don't realise how much innovation changes things. We must encourage innovation and not stop it with regulations. This summit was very important because it does not help winking in the dark. People choose to be governed better. If they choose bad government, that is where te downward spiral starts".

The DA Innovation Summit that was live broadcast today can be viewed on our Youtube channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJ5BGz7BLK0

Issued by James Selfe, Head of the DA Governance Unit, 4 February 2021