The cost of apathy is too great

Yesterday morning I visited St Columbus Catholic Church in Capital Park to answer parishioners’ questions about the upcoming local government election.

In a truly commendable move the Catholic Church has encouraged parishes in South Africa to invite local political leaders to answer the questions of parishioners ahead of the 18 May poll.

I told those in attendance that my and the DA’s biggest opponent in this election will not be any other party, but political apathy.

The nagging belief held by many voters that their votes can no longer make a difference is a complete and utter fallacy.

In fact the price of buying into political apathy has never been so costly, because the opportunity for meaningful political change in our city has never been so good.

The difference between support for opposition parties and the ruling African National Congress in the Tshwane Metro at 2006 local government election was a mere 6%.

The DA merely needs to turn out the support it received in the 2009 general election and convince a small number of previous ANC voters to make the change, and then we can win the city.

Let us be honest. Change starts at the ballot box.

Voting one party out of power and another into power is what makes democracy work. It drives up political will and political will drives service delivery.

The DA had the political will to deliver in Cape Town and it did deliver.

Five years after Capetonians replaced an ANC government with a DA government, residents have the best access to water, sanitation, electricity and refuse removal of all major metros in South Africa.

Today the Tshwane Metro faces even worse challenges than Cape Town did in 2006, but I am confident that the same principles which the DA applied to government in Cape Town can be just as successfully applied in our city.

We need to open up government. Those that receive tenders must be able to do the job, meetings of the Executive Mayoral Committee must be open to the public and municipal sub-councils must be created to bring government as close as possible to the people.

We need to get the city’s finances in order.

Every Rand has to be spent wisely so that we can invest in training and equipping our Metro Police, building roads and extending service delivery infrastructure to every corner of our vast municipality.

We need to enable job-creating growth. A city with safe, well-maintained roads that reach every part of its geographical area, with secure electricity supply and leaders who are business-friendly and open to new ideas will attract investors and create jobs.

The DA can deliver on these challenges. There is no reason for apathy on 18 May.

The task that lies ahead is too great and the opportunity for real political change, for clean, effective government that delivers services for all, is too good to give up now.