The Democratic Alliance (DA) on Friday announced DA KwaZulu-Natal provincial executive committee member Haniff Hoosen as its eThekwini mayoral candidate, expressing confidence in his leadership.

Hoosen has served in council and in Parliament, with DA leader John Steenhuisen describing him as a leader who has the knowledge, the experience, and the courage to rebuild the eThekwini municipality.

“Under his leadership, we will restore dignity to our neighbourhoods, invest in our townships, light our streets, fix our water and sewage systems, and make this city work for all its people. Not just for the insiders,” he said.

Steenhuisen noted the party’s successes, highlighting the Cape Town metro, which he said had achieved 21 unqualified audits since the 2003/4 financial year.

“Its financial statements are open to scrutiny on its website,” he said.

He explained that Midvaal received its eleventh consecutive clean audit in the 2023/4 financial year.

“The uMngeni municipality, just up the road, which is run by the DA, has been ranked the best-performing municipality in KwaZulu-Natal for household access to essential services, according to the Provincial Spatial Integration Report 2024/25,” he said.

He claimed that where the DA governed the “best” pro-poor programmes had been implemented, such helping the elderly pay for water and electricity, and improving lighting and roads in the most neglected areas to make them safer.

In acceptance of the nomination, Hoosen said the DA could build a city where all children had a future, a home, safety and economic opportunities.

“Regardless of the colour of our skin, for as long as our children are willing to work hard and build a better future, they deserve a government that does the basics right to give them the foundation to thrive, whether they are black or white, Indian or coloured,” he said.

He highlighted that he had seen firsthand in the city over the years, how this city government, and the one before, had torn people apart, just because they looked different, or spoke differently, or prayed differently.

“I want you to envision with me a different City and a different Metro. I want us together to chart a new way forward, where the gains of freedom and equality will see a city delivering services to all residents, and will mean that everyone has an equal foundation. A metro that delivers on the basics, fairly, for all people,” he said.

He noted that there were still far too many desperate people in the city, who lived in extreme poverty and could not afford to put a decent meal on the table for their families.

He explained that the highest number of informal settlements in the country existed in Durban, with thousands of families living in about 600 informal settlements. For them, life had not yet realised the change they deserved.

He noted the many critiques of the party, saying they were without facts.

“…and the facts do not lie. Where the DA governs in Metros, we put 75% of the budget to low-income homes. “If we work hard and turn things around in this city, we can create a place where people run to our city for opportunities, and not away from the city,” he said.

REDUCING WASTE

He highlighted that if elected as mayor, within the first few days of taking over the city, he would start a process of reducing waste and make life easier and more affordable for people in the city.

“From day one, we will start a process to recover more than R40-billion that this city has not bothered to collect, and we will direct that money towards fixing the pipes, so people can get better access to water and not have to pay for water seeping into the ground,” he said.

He expressed confidence that the DA could turn around what he termed decades of “poor governance, mismanagement and corruption” in the city.

“…but I also know that over the next 12 months as we campaign, there will be those who will want to break our spirits and tell us that what we are trying to achieve is impossible.”