GQEBERHA, EASTERN CAPE — The Democratic Alliance has officially unveiled its six Eastern Cape mayoral candidates, setting a clear agenda of job creation, infrastructure renewal, and professionalized municipal administration ahead of the November 4 local government elections.
Provincial Leader Andrew Whitfield announced the slate with confidence, emphasizing that getting municipalities to work effectively is the cornerstone of the party’s election promise. Whitfield stated that the party’s number one priority across the province is to stimulate job creation through stable, functional local governance.
In Nelson Mandela Bay, the party is centering its campaign on professionalizing the municipal administration. Mayoral candidate Retief Odendaal highlighted that a severe lack of top-tier leadership has crippled the city’s operations.
“Right now in Nelson Mandela Bay, nine of the executive director positions are vacant, including the city manager,” Odendaal said. “That has resulted in the city going into a state of paralysis, and it has an impact not just on service delivery, but also on our economy.”
The party is also looking to build on its strongest foothold in the province. Kouga remains the only municipality in the Eastern Cape where the DA has held an outright majority, governing as sole rulers since 2016. Kouga Mayor Hattingh Bornman emphasized that this stability is a magnet for economic growth.
“That is the kind of investor confidence that we want to create in our municipality, because where there’s a stable DA government, things like that start to happen,” Bornman said. He noted that a main priority for the new term is investing in the industrial development zone in Humansdorp, which will bring a significant economic injection into the local economy.
The newly announced candidates represent the largest number of mayoral hopefuls the party has ever fielded in the province, with each tailoring their message to local challenges:
- Blue Crane Route: Mayoral candidate Lorraine Smith pledged to deliver a clean, safe, and corruption-free municipality. She committed to ensuring regular refuse collection and the systematic cleanup of illegal dumping sites.
- Inxuba Yethemba: Candidate Betty Lovens focused on economic empowerment, stating her pledge is to create jobs through a stronger local economy by actively attracting investment and supporting local businesses.
- Dr Beyers Naudé: Mayoral candidate Eldridge Ruiters announced a strict focus on implementing reliable municipal services and restoring functional infrastructure to the area.
- Makana: Candidate Luvuyo Sizani highlighted the urgent need for road maintenance, humorously but pointedly noting the severity of the issue: “Our roads are so bad that we even have a restaurant called Potholes and Donkeys in Makana.”
With the local government elections officially scheduled for November 4, the Democratic Alliance has expressed strong confidence in its expanded roster of candidates, aiming to secure majorities and drive their service delivery mandates across the Eastern Cape’s diverse municipalities.
