Political parties have not held back in their criticism of both President Cyril Ramaphosa and Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis after they got into a verbal clash over service delivery within the City of Cape Town (CoCT).

It was during a question-and-answer session in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) in Parliament, on Tuesday, when the president criticised the CoCT, saying that despite its good performance in measures of financial governance, the City has not reduced inequality.

“The City of Cape Town shares many of the challenges faced by other metros, including rapid urbanisation and population shifts, which increase pressure on services such as housing, water and sanitation,” he said.

Ramaphosa said that the legacy of apartheid spatial planning placed many townships and informal settlements far from economic hubs and service centres.

“While the City of Cape Town tends to perform well on measures of financial governance, it has not demonstrated significant progress in reducing inequality within the metro,” he said.

“Census data shows that between 2011 and 2022, Cape Town performed worse than the average of all metros in expanding access to services such as refuse removal, piped water, electricity and flush toilets.”

Hill-Lewis hit back, saying the president’s attempt at “damage control” does not reflect the reality of Cape Town’s governance.

“The president is still trying to do damage control after he dared to speak the truth when he said that Cape Town and other towns governed by the DA are examples to follow. In fact, they are the only examples of progress and good governance in South Africa,” said Hill-Lewis.

“Where his party governs, there is only decay, corruption, and collapsed services. That is the sea of ruin that the president presides over.”

ActionSA said they believe that neither Ramaphosa nor Hill-Lewis can credibly speak on matters of good governance and equitable, effective service delivery.

“On one hand, the President leads a party whose governance legacy is defined by collapse and dysfunction across every sphere of government, but especially local government. On the other hand, Hill-Lewis leads a city where governance has been deliberately designed to privilege the affluent while leaving communities on the periphery to decay.

“Spend an afternoon driving through varying parts of Cape Town, and this becomes glaringly obvious.

“ActionSA, through its work in the City of Tshwane, is proving that it is possible to deliver quality services equitably, restoring dignity to communities long neglected by both the ANC and the DA,” they said.

Unite for Change Leadership council member and GOOD member of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament, Brett Herron, said so-called “better-run” DA municipalities like Cape Town remain defined by deep inequality and exclusion.

“Cape Town’s budget headlines may look impressive, but outcomes on the ground tell a different story. More than 800 informal settlements, raw sewage in the streets, and service backlogs stretching decades expose the limits of a governance model that works for the wealthy and leaves the poor behind. Clean audits are not clean streets.

“South Africans deserve a government that is competent, ethical, and fair, one that delivers for everyone, not just the privileged few,” Herron said.

“The public sparring between Ramaphosa and Hill-Lewis over service delivery misses the real point – South Africans are tired of being forced to choose between good governance and segregation.”

Freedom Front Plus chief whip in Parliament, Dr Corné Mulder, said: “It is quite pathetic to see how the two largest political parties in the GNU are trying to outwit each other when it comes to service delivery and their respective performance in this regard on a local level.

“The public is not impressed at all. It seems that both parties are so focused on projecting themselves as the champions moving towards the local government election of 2026 that they forget the plight of ordinary citizens in municipalities governed by them both,” Mulder said.

“There are many failures by both of them when it comes to service delivery. It is time that all political parties at the local government level work together in the best interest of South Africans.”

theolin.tembo@inl.co.za

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