My resignation was not sudden or spurred on by anyone. I thought about it every day since the elections in August. writes Patricia de Lille.
Last week I announced my resignation as the DA Western Cape leader, a position I was elected to in April 2015. It has been an honour to serve.
During my tenure, the DA has won new municipalities and increased its share of the vote in the City of Cape Town to 66.7%. It has also seen growth in ANC strongholds.
The DA-run City of Cape Town, through the implementation of the Organisational Development and Transformation Plan (ODTP), is taking a new direction in addressing inequality, through better service delivery. There is more we must do to redress apartheid’s legacy, so that we keep on making progress.
These exciting changes will mean even more demands on me, in my capacity as mayor. I am determined to give this new task my dedication and I have therefore chosen to step down as DA leader. My resignation was not sudden or spurred on by anyone. I thought about it every day since the elections in August.
The responsibility of a two-thirds majority weighs heavily on me. With this increase in support, there is no place for complacency and one cannot become arrogant with power. I want to work harder and devote myself even more to the city.
As a public servant, I am not driven by power or position; I am driven by my conviction to serve the people of my country.
Some of the key reasons for wanting to focus my attention on being the mayor are: Our strategy to increase investment to Cape Town so that we can create jobs and grow the economy. We need to put more might into our efforts to create an enabling environment that will attract more investment and create jobs. Another part of our economic growth strategy is engaging with other cities to bring more flights to Cape Town so that we can see greater connectivity between Cape Town and the rest of the world where we want to make it easier for people to visit and increase business tourism.
Since 2013, we have started a number of Mayoral Redress projects such as the ceilings retrofitting project to install insulated ceilings and waterproof RDP subsidised homes which had been built without ceilings and waterproofing between 1994 and 2005. We have started phase 2 where R60million has been allocated for 3451 households. During Phase 1, the City invested R83m for some 4550 ceilings.
In 2013, the council allocated R20m for Mayoral Redress programmes to implement infrastructure projects to upgrade roads and pathways in some of our poorest wards.
I also want to focus my attention on a number of credible, global organisations such as the C40 Cities, the Global Covenant of Mayors and the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate.
Finally, another key reason is the roll-out of our “shadow mayors” programme where I will be joining the four area-based members of the mayoral committee as they work their quadrants to be more visible and be our eyes and ears, our hands and feet to make sure we bring greater service delivery.
While we have made progress, there is a lot more we can do.
Since my resignation there has been speculation by a range of people. They are entitled to their opinions but they do not have the right to judge me.
Between these nameless, faceless and useless sources, there are some people who are anti-transformation.
I am determined to take Cape Town to
the next level and give residents the service they deserve and to live up to the preamble of the constitution.
In order to improve our performance for all residents, we have embarked on implementing our ODTP, our plan to reform the government in order to improve service delivery. It will help deliver a progressive agenda with a government that believes in and acts on the principles of working for redress, reconciliation, delivery
and diversity.
* De Lille is the mayor of Cape Town and the former DA leader in the Western Cape.
** The views expressed here are not necessaily those of Independent Media.