Ramaphosa backtracks on praising DA-run Cape Town

Answering questions in parliament on 14 October, President Cyril Ramaphosa backtracked on his previous statements praising the municipal management of the City of Cape Town. 

The president said that while Cape Town performs well in financial governance, as evidenced by its Auditor General reports, it has not improved the equality of service delivery and actually performs worse than all other municipalities in this regard. 

In response, Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said that this is an attempt by the president to do damage control after praising the municipality at a recent African National Congress (ANC) convention.

“The City of Cape Town’s per capita investment in infrastructure and service delivery is less in townships and low-income areas than in affluent areas,” the president said. 

The president said he has relied on two scientific instruments to make this claim: a Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) census for the years from 2011 to 2022, as well as analyses of Cape Town’s budget.

He said that this showed that between 2011 and 2022, Cape Town performed worse than all metros in expanding service delivery. 

The StatsSA report, The State of Basic Service Delivery in South Africa: Analysis of the Census 2022 data, did, however, give the Western Cape the highest service delivery index score of 4.68.

The president said that the analysis of the City’s budget and per-capita spending was “done by others” but did not specify who completed these analyses. He said this is not his opinion, but facts based on data.

“We may say, yes, based on the Auditor General’s statements, the City of Cape Town has done well, but the lives of the people are what matter most.”

“So they can’t stand on top of Table Mountain and say they are the best. They cannot,” he said. 

Ramaphosa said that Cape Town’s service delivery patterns show that it continues to support the racial patterns of apartheid. 

“So they need to demonstrate on a per-capita basis that they are doing better,” he said. 

“They can’t stand on table mountain and say they are the best”

According to Consulta’s South African Citizen Satisfaction index, which shows what the average person thinks of their municipality’s governance, Cape Town is the best performing large metro for seven years, scoring 66 out of a possible 100.

This is also reflected in Good Governance Africa’s Governance Performance Index for South Africa in 2024, where Cape Town was the highest-ranked metro in its Governance Performance Index (GPI) score.

The City’s most favourable GPI category was service delivery, in which it outperformed all other major metros.

Democratic Alliance (DA) Member of Parliament Jacobus Badenhorst stood up to point out that the City of Cape Town’s budget for infrastructure is R40 billion over three years, 75% of which will be invested in low-income areas. 

“The City of Cape Town invests more than any other metro. So I think you were being honest and truthful when you said previously about Cape Town, and I quote, that ‘at least one city works’.”

He added that the Auditor General’s reports measure financial performance as well as service delivery. 

The president responded that his remarks are based on data and, “We need to look at where the money is going. We all need to pick up areas where there has been development, and we need to learn from each other,” he said. 

“The ANC should learn how the DA does it”

President Ramaphosa recently came under fire for praising the management of the City of Cape Town at an ANC convention of over 4,600 party councillors. 

He said that the councillors should learn how the DA runs its municipalities. 

“Those municipalities that do best are not ANC-controlled municipalities, and I can say it here because there is nothing wrong with competition. They are often DA-controlled municipalities,” he said at the convention.

“We need to ask ourselves what they are doing that we are not,” Ramaphosa continued. “There is nothing wrong with us saying that we want to go and see what Cape Town and Stellenbosch are doing. We need to move up the ladder.”

The remarks angered officials within his own party as well as partner organisations. 

In a media briefing, the ANC Youth League said “It would be ignorant to compare the ANC and the DA fully, because ANC municipalities are mainly in poor rural areas – an apartheid-era design.”

Hill-Lewis added that DA-run municipalities are not only good examples to follow, but “they are the only examples of progress and good governance in South Africa. Where his party governs, there is only decay.”

“The simple, irrefutable fact is that despite the enormous challenges of poverty and unemployment that South Africans face (also thanks to the ANC), Cape Town is steadily moving forward while every other city in the country is moving backwards.”