DA leader Geordin Hill-Lewis has placed functioning local government at the centre of the party’s campaign for the November 4 local government elections, saying South Africans have been forced to accept dysfunction as normal.Launching the DA’s elections manifesto in Johannesburg on Saturday, Hill-Lewis said residents should not have to organise their lives around unreliable water, electricity, refuse collection, broken streetlights and failing infrastructure.“A working government should be ordinary. Your municipality should be the least dramatic part of your day.”Hill-Lewis said the DA’s manifesto was built around a basic proposition: that residents should be able to turn on a tap and expect water, switch on a light and expect electricity, walk home beneath functioning streetlights and have their rubbish collected without having to fight with government.“South Africans have heard enough promises. What they now need is a government that works.”He described the daily reality of municipal failure through the experiences of ordinary residents: a mother unable to get water before sending her children to school, a small business owner losing income because of electricity outages, a young woman walking to a taxi rank beneath broken streetlights and an informal trader struggling with a permit system.“These are not separate problems,” Hill-Lewis said. “The problems South Africans face are the consequences of the same political choice: the acceptance of failure.“The greatest danger to our country is the creeping belief that decline is inevitable and irreversible.“We will not lower our expectations for our country. We will raise the standard. We will restore hope that we can fix what has been broken,” he said.Hill-Lewis organised the party’s offer around three guarantees: a government residents can trust, services they can rely on and communities in which people can get ahead.The first is aimed at political appointments and corruption.He promised that municipal jobs under DA governments would go to people capable of doing the work rather than those with political connections.“We will end cadre deployment in the municipalities we govern.”The party wants engineers overseeing infrastructure and professional administrators running municipalities, while officials who steal, waste public money or fail through gross negligence would face consequences.“Public money is not party money,” Hill-Lewis said.The DA also promises greater transparency in procurement and improved municipal billing systems.On service delivery, Hill-Lewis announced a new rule for DA-run municipalities under which money collected for water would be protected for water infrastructure, while electricity revenue would be protected for electricity infrastructure.“Your money will no longer be treated as a political slush fund,” he said.The money should instead repair pipes, maintain substations and replace electricity cables.The party also plans to use technology to identify leaks, illegal connections and failing infrastructure before they become major crises.It has promised to work with communities and businesses to restore parks, libraries, clinics, swimming pools and sports facilities.“Every child deserves somewhere safe to play,” Hill-Lewis said.The manifesto also links municipal competence to economic opportunity.“When cities and towns work, people work,” he said. “When cities and towns work, investment flows, businesses grow, and more jobs are created.”The DA plans to cut unnecessary red tape, simplify permit systems for informal traders and create safe, serviced trading spaces.Crime is another major part of the offer.Hill-Lewis said municipalities are often best placed to identify dangerous streets, extortion hotspots and neglected areas where criminal networks take hold.The DA wants greater policing powers for capable municipalities and wants municipal police forces to have the power to investigate crime.“When you walk home at night, you must know that your government is on your side — not the criminal’s,” he said.Throughout the speech, Hill-Lewis returned to the DA’s slogan, “Working for All”.Water flowing because revenue is invested in infrastructure, electricity remaining available because the grid is maintained, safer communities, fewer bureaucratic barriers and better opportunities for informal traders were all presented as examples of what the slogan means in practice.Hill-Lewis ended with a direct appeal to voters.“Vote for your taps to run. Vote for your streetlights to shine. Vote for your bins to be emptied.”TimesLIVE