The full manifesto

Preamble

As a non-racial, non-sexist and all-inclusive Party, we believe that any decision-making process must be community-centric and evidence-based. Decisions must therefore address the root causes, taking cognisance of the macro and micro internal and external environment. We further believe that local government must be transformative. It must aim to redress historical injustices and create meaningful improvements in social, political and economic conditions for all.

Our Vision, that every intervention has community empowerment as a foundation, is based on seven pillars:

1. Housing
2. Infrastructure development
3. Crime and safety manifesto
4. Economic empowerment
5. Councillor performance, accountability and community responsibility
6. Manifesto on municipal finance for the Cape Town Metropolitan Council
7. Manifesto on women and youth healing, protection and empowerment

1. Housing

The United Democratic Front Party submits that housing is a means of giving back dignity, a tool for community based economic growth and skills development, and an ultimate vehicle for social change. Therefore, we will endeavour to achieve the above using a four-pronged approach:

Self-Help Schemes

Municipalities will provide serviced plots of land, each measuring at least 200m², equipped with essential infrastructure such as water, sanitation, and electricity. This initiative will be financed through the R2‑billion allocation from national government, or where feasible, self-funded by municipalities under their current budgets.

The construction of homes will be carried out directly by the beneficiaries themselves, following the self-help model.

Municipalities will release housing funds in stages, aligned with the progress of construction, to ensure accountability and support incremental building. This approach empowers families to take ownership of their housing development, promotes cost efficiency, and fosters community-driven growth.

Transfer of Municipal Flats/Courts

We declare that we will champion the transfer of ownership to all residents living in the City of Cape Town council flats and courts, subject to certain occupancy conditions. This will aim, in some way, to provide redress and restore some dignity to the people of Cape Town. This transfer will create skills, wealth and economic leverage for the small businesses operating from these communities. This will further stimulate economic growth. The condition is that the Municipality must repair the flats before such transfer takes place, subject to further conditions such as a period responsible for latent defects.

RDP build structures

We submit that the current plans and implementations should continue and future planning be based on self-help.

Affordable Housing in High‑Opportunity Areas

We will prioritise affordable housing in the inner city, the Atlantic seaboard, the southern suburbs, transport corridors, and all areas with high job density. Inclusionary housing will be mandatory in all major developments.

2. Infrastructure Development

The United Democratic Front Party believes that infrastructure must be developed to meet the current and future needs of the Municipality.

Cape Town’s infrastructure is the backbone of its social, economic and environmental future. It must be governed as a public good, not a commercial commodity. This manifesto sets out the principles, boundaries and evidence-based lessons that guide a community-first approach to infrastructure development.

Hence, we need to ensure that essential services remain under democratic control and are not outsourced to private operators whose incentives diverge from the public interest.

Foundational Principles for Cape Town’s Infrastructure

Public Ownership of Essential Services. The United Democratic Front Party commits to public ownership and operation of all infrastructure that is essential to life, dignity and economic participation. This includes water, sanitation, electricity distribution, waste management, stormwater systems, public transport governance and core digital infrastructure.

Democratic Accountability. Infrastructure decisions must be transparent, be subject to council oversight, and be open to public participation. Accountability cannot be delegated to private boards whose primary duty is shareholder return.

Long-Term Public Value. Infrastructure must be evaluated on long-term social, environmental and economic value, and not on short-term cost-cutting or budget relief.

Internal Capacity Building. The City of Cape Town must invest in engineering, planning, legal, IT and operational skills internally. Outsourcing must never become structural dependence.

Equity and Universal Access. Infrastructure must reduce inequality and guarantee access for historically marginalised communities. Market-driven models cannot achieve this alone.

Empirical Lessons from Europe: Why Outsourcing Failed

European cities provide the strongest empirical evidence on outsourcing failures, especially in water, energy and transport. Many cities later reversed outsourcing through re-municipalisation, bringing services back in-house.

First Lesson: Water Services – Paris, Berlin and Others. European studies show consistent patterns. Paris ended private concessions with Veolia and Suez after decades of outsourcing. Empirical findings show:

• Tariffs increased faster under private operators.
• Cost structures lacked transparency.
• Investment decisions prioritised profit over long-term maintenance.
• Public oversight was weak due to information asymmetry.

Berlin partially privatised water services, then bought back shares at significant cost due to:

• Rising tariffs.
• Public dissatisfaction.
• Contractual lock-in that limited policy flexibility.

Cost of insourcing: Berlin paid €618 million to buy back private shares. Paris incurred substantial restructuring costs to rebuild internal capacity lost during outsourcing.

Second Lesson: Energy Utilities – Germany (Hamburg, Stuttgart). More than 280 German municipalities re-municipalised energy grids between 2005 and 2020. The key findings were:

• Private operators underinvested in local networks.
• Climate and social goals were not aligned with profit-driven models.
• Municipalities struggled to enforce public-interest obligations.

Cost of insourcing: Cities faced:

• High concession buy-back costs.
• Litigation over contract termination.
• The need to rebuild technical teams that had been hollowed out.

Third Lesson: Transport PPP Failures – UK and Spain.

UK rail outsourcing resulted in chronic underinvestment, safety failures, and eventual renationalisation of several lines.

Spanish toll road PPPs collapsed financially, requiring state bailouts.

Cost of insourcing: Governments absorbed billions in liabilities after private operators failed.

Empirical Lessons from China: Rapid Expansion, High Failure Rate

PPP boom since 2014: China aggressively promoted PPPs to relieve local government debt and accelerate infrastructure delivery.

High failure and termination: Empirical analysis of PPP projects from 2014 to 2020 shows a high failure rate, with many projects cancelled or left in limbo.

Core lesson: Rapid, policy driven expansion of outsourcing without strong institutional safeguards leads to systemic project failure.

Institutional Quality and Governance Weaknesses. Studies of failed PPPs in China highlight that institutional quality depends on the strength of local governance and regulatory capacity. Rule of law is a decisive factor:

• The larger the government size the higher risk the of failure: Regions with large, complex government structures showed higher PPP failure rates. This suggested that there were coordination and governance problems.
• Weak business environment for private capital: Where the environment for private firms was poor (with uncertain rules and opaque processes), PPPs were more likely to fail.

Lesson for outsourcing: If the public authority lacks strong, transparent institutions, outsourcing magnifies risk rather than reducing it.

Fiscal Affordability and Hidden Debt. China used PPPs partly to mask or manage local government debt, but empirical work shows:

• Local fiscal affordability is critical: PPPs were more successful where local governments had stronger fiscal capacity. Weaker regions saw more failures and terminations.
• Implicit debt and contingent liabilities: PPP contracts often created hidden obligations, minimum revenue guarantees and availability payments that later strained municipal budgets.

Lesson: Outsourcing does not remove fiscal risk. Instead, it often repackages fiscal risk, making it harder to see and manage.

Ownership Structure: Private Firms vs. State Owned Enterprises (SOEs). Large scale empirical analysis of over 12,000 PPP projects shows that who the private partner is matters greatly:

• Private firm involvement may result in higher termination likelihood: Projects with purely private partners had higher abnormal termination rates, especially in sectors that required strong government support (transport, urban development).
• SOE involvement creates more stability: PPPs involving SOEs were more resilient, particularly in socially critical sectors.

Lesson: Where profit-driven private firms dominate essential services, project survival and the alignment of projects with public goals are weaker.

Sectoral risks: Transport, Urban Development, Quality Sensitive Services. Chinese evidence shows that PPPs in sectors where quality and reliability matter more than cost (like transport, urban development, water or environmental services) face higher failure risks unless government support and oversight are strong.

Lesson: Outsourcing in complex, high-stakes sectors is structurally fragile when driven by cutting costs rather than long-term service quality.

Why Outsourcing (PPPs) has Failed in Practice

Synthesising the empirical findings:

• Over-reliance on PPPs as a fiscal tool: PPPs have been used to relieve visible debt rather than to improve service quality. This has led to unsustainable commitments.
• Weak contract design and oversight: Complex PPP contracts have outpaced local capacity to monitor, enforce and renegotiate.
• Misaligned incentives: Private partners have prioritised revenue and risk transfer, but governments needed universal access, quality and long-term resilience.
• Institutional and governance gaps: There has been inadequate transparency, regulatory strength. This type of business environment has undermined project viability.

What Must Never Be Outsourced in Cape Town

Drawing on European evidence and the nature of essential services, the following functions must remain strictly public:

Water Supply and Sanitation — not to be outsourced:

• Bulk water resource planning.
• Treatment plant operation.
• Distribution network management.
• Metering and billing policy.
• Tariff-setting authority.

Rationale: Water is a human right; outsourcing leads to tariff inflation, weak transparency, and costly insourcing later.

Electricity Distribution and Grid Control — not to be outsourced:

• Ownership and operation of distribution networks.
• Grid expansion planning.
• Renewable integration strategy.

Rationale: Grid control is central to energy security and climate policy.

Public Transport Governance — not to be outsourced:

• Route planning.
• Fare policy.
• Ticketing systems.
• Integration across modes.

Rationale: Fragmented private operations undermine coherent mobility systems.

Waste Management (Strategic Core) — not to be outsourced:

• Landfill ownership.
• Environmental monitoring.
• City-wide waste strategy.

Rationale: Waste management is an essential public service and a core municipal responsibility. The municipality should not outsource functions that determine long term environmental protection, public health, strategic planning or control of critical public assets.

Urban Planning and Regulatory Functions — not to be outsourced:

• Zoning.
• Building control.
• Environmental approvals.

Rationale: These functions should remain under direct municipal authority because they involve the exercise of public regulatory power and decisions that affect property rights, development, the environment and the public interest.

Core IT Systems and Data Governance — not to be outsourced:

• Billing databases.
• Cadastral systems.
• Cybersecurity.
• Digital identity systems.

Rationale: These functions involve critical municipal data, public assets, financial information and the digital security of residents.

What Can Be Outsourced, and the Maximum Allowable Percentage

Outsourcing must be limited, reversible and non-core.

Maximum Outsourcing Threshold. For any essential service (water, electricity, waste, transport): no more than between 20% and 30% of total expenditure may be outsourced. The remaining 70% to 80%, including strategic control, core operations and asset ownership must remain public.

This ceiling is based on European Cities’ empirical evidence: they found that where they outsourced more than 30% of essential services, they faced severe difficulties and high costs when they insourced again.

Appropriate Outsourcing Areas.

• Specialised engineering studies.
• Short-term technical maintenance.
• Construction (but not ownership or operation).
• Non-core support services (cleaning, catering).
• Innovation pilots with sunset clauses.

Implementation Commitments for Cape Town

• Adopt a Public First Infrastructure Policy — codify non outsourcing rules in municipal bylaws.
• Audit All Existing Outsourced Contracts — identify high risk areas and develop a phased insourcing plan.
• Rebuild Internal Capacity — invest in municipal engineering, planning, IT, and operations.
• Design Reversible Contracts — short-term, performance based, with clear exit clauses.
• Institutionalise Public Participation — ensure historical disadvantage community shape infrastructure priorities.
• Prioritise Equity and Climate Resilience — use public control to direct investment to underserved areas.

Direct takeaway for Cape Town: China’s and European experience show that outsourcing essential infrastructure through PPPs, without strong institutions, clear public interest safeguards, and robust fiscal capacity, leads to high failure rates, hidden debt and costly reversals.

Conclusion

The City of Cape Town must build infrastructure that is publicly owned and publicly controlled. It must address historical neglect and be publicly accountable.

European and Chinese evidence shows that outsourcing essential services leads to higher costs, weaker transparency, and expensive insourcing later. A public-first model is the only sustainable path to equitable, resilient and democratic governance.

3. Crime and Safety Manifesto

The United Democratic Front Party believes that crime prevention and community safety cannot succeed through enforcement alone. Sustainable safety requires collaboration, early intervention, social support, and transparent policing practices. Our approach is five-pronged; it is supported by an overarching commitment to evidence-based budgeting and intersectoral coordination.

Transparency and Accountability in Policing

Effective policing requires trust. Trust is built through transparency, early intervention and clear accountability systems.

Key commitments:

• Early intervention measures to identify behavioural risks among officers before they escalate.
• Identification of truant or misaligned behaviours, followed by structured corrective action and programmes.
• Structured coaching and mentoring programmes with defined timeframes for officers who require support.
• Corrective action and performance management for officers who fail to meet behavioural or professional standards.
• Community immersion for new recruits, including a practical programme that familiarises officers with the communities they serve, local cultures and community expectations.

These commitments ensure that policing is professional, accountable, aligned with community needs, and seen to be such.

Decriminalising Poverty and Addressing Social Drivers of Crime

Many issues that are currently treated as criminal matters are fundamentally social and economic problems. Homelessness, mental health challenges, substance use disorders, and trauma require care – not punishment.

Key commitments:

• Closer collaboration between Metro Police and Social Development and other state levers, ensuring that vulnerable individuals are referred to support services rather than criminalised.
• A mass trauma response programme led jointly by Social Development and the City of Cape Town, addressing the psychological harm caused by gang violence on historically disadvantaged areas and broader society.
• Establishment of specialised holding venues for individuals who are experiencing homelessness and mental health crises.
• Creation of safe homes for woman and children who are experiencing abuse.
• Establishment, in each substructure, of rehabilitation centres concerning drug and alcohol abuse.

This recognises that safety is achieved by addressing root causes, not by punishing poverty.

Community Representation and Partnership

Communities are central to safety. Policing must be rooted in partnership, shared responsibility and community legitimacy.

Key commitments:

• Strengthening and capacitating Neighbourhood Watches as formal partners in community safety.
• Law enforcement must have direct partnership with Neighbourhood Watches and dedicated teams to deal with extortion and other crimes.
• Law enforcement must be intelligence driven.
• Law enforcement must be present when the Neighbourhood Watches patrol the communities.
• Safety guarantees, training, and protective measures must be provided to community volunteers who support crime prevention efforts.
• Community structures must have a direct voice in local safety planning and oversight.

The United Democratic Front Party believes that employment equity – including where law enforcement is concerned – must reflect regional demographics, not national averages. Applying national demographic targets in regions with different population compositions has created polarisation, resentment and inefficiency.

Evidence-Based Budgeting and Intersectoral Collaboration

The Safety and Security budget must not be used solely for enforcement. It must also fund empirical studies into the root causes of crime and support interdepartmental collaboration.

Key commitments:

• A portion of the Safety and Security budget will be allocated to research into the root causes of crime, including poverty, unemployment, trauma, substance abuse and spatial inequality.
• An intersectoral collaboration framework will be established between Safety and Security, Social Development, Health, Education and Community organisations.
• Research findings will be used to guide policy, resource allocation, and prevention strategies.

This approach ensures that Cape Town’s safety strategy is grounded in evidence, prevention, and coordinated action.

Law Enforcement Staff Makeup

Law enforcement where operational possible, deployments will be sufficiently diverse, to enable communication across languages, cultures and community contexts.

Law enforcement recruitment strategies will prioritise local representation, cultural competence, and community familiarity, to strengthen trust, communication and legitimacy.

Our Promise

The United Democratic Front Party commits to a crime and safety strategy that is collaborative, community centred, socially informed and accountable.

Crime cannot be reduced through policing alone. It requires a whole‑of‑society approach that addresses trauma, poverty, exclusion and the social conditions that allow crime to flourish.

4. Economic Empowerment

A New Approach to Broad‑Based Economic Empowerment

The United Democratic Front Party believes that the current form of Broad‑Based Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) has failed to achieve its intended purpose. Instead of broad empowerment, it has disproportionately benefited a small, politically connected elite, resulting in an estimated R1-trillion in value transferred to fewer than 100 individuals since 1994. This outcome has deepened inequality and undermined public confidence in transformation.

The United Democratic Front Party proposes a fundamental shift from elite shareholding to broad‑based worker ownership, community empowerment, and regionally fair employment equity.

Replacing Elite Shareholding with Employee Share Ownership Plan (ESOPs)

The United Democratic Front Party will champion the replacement of traditional BEE shareholding schemes with Employee Share Ownership Plan (ESOPs) across the private sector.

Key commitments:

• ESOPs will ensure that workers, not politically connected individuals, benefit from company growth.
• Future empowerment transactions will prioritise employee ownership, preventing the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few.
• ESOPs will be supported by regulatory incentives and compliance frameworks to ensure meaningful worker participation.

This approach ensures that empowerment is broad‑based, fair and economically productive.

Procurement Framework

The United Democratic Front Party proposes a procurement system that is transparent, community‑centred, and economically rational, built on:

• Community Empowerment — subcontracting conditions must ensure that local communities benefit directly from public procurement.
• Job Creation — procurement must prioritise suppliers who create sustainable employment opportunities.
• Value for Money — public funds must be used efficiently, ensuring quality delivery at fair cost.

This framework will account for 80% of procurement scoring. The remaining 20% will be based on historical disadvantage, ensuring that previously marginalised groups retain access to economic opportunities.

Additional Procurement Commitment: Access. The United Democratic Front Party will champion procurement reforms that expand access for historically disadvantaged communities, including:

• Simplified tender processes.
• Reduced administrative barriers.
• Community‑based subcontracting requirements.
• Transparent evaluation criteria.

This approach ensures that procurement becomes a tool for local development, not elite enrichment.

Key Commitments for Employment Equity and Diversity

• Employment Equity targets will align with regional population profiles.
• Both government and private sector employers must apply regional demographic data as the sole yardstick.
• Deployments will be sufficiently diverse, to enable communication across languages, cultures and community contexts.
• Recruitment strategies will prioritise local representation, cultural competence, and community familiarity, to strengthen trust, communication and legitimacy.

5. Councillor Performance, Accountability and Community Responsibility

The United Democratic Front Party believes that elected representatives must be held to the highest standards of integrity, performance and accountability. Communities deserve councillors who are competent, present, responsive and fully committed to the responsibilities entrusted to them. To ensure this, all United Democratic Front Party councillors will operate under a clear and enforceable performance framework.

Performance Agreements for All Councillors

Every United Democratic Front Party councillor will sign a Performance Agreement that outlines:

• Their objectives for the ward they serve.
• Their responsibilities to residents.
• Their obligations regarding transparency, communication and service delivery.
• Their accountability mechanisms and reporting duties.

This agreement will serve as a binding commitment between the councillor and the community.

Key Performance Areas (KPAs) and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Councillor performance will be evaluated through clearly defined KPAs and KPIs, including:

• Community engagement and accessibility.
• Service delivery oversight.
• Responsiveness to community concerns even outside their municipal mandate.
• Attendance and participation in council structures.
• Ethical conduct and compliance with governance standards.
• Evidence‑based decision‑making and reporting.

These metrics ensure that councillors are assessed fairly, consistently, and transparently.

Consequences for Non‑Performance

The United Democratic Front Party will prioritise community interests above internal politics. Therefore:

Non‑performing councillors will be recalled, regardless of popularity or proximity to party leadership.

This ensures that accountability is real, enforceable, and centred on community needs rather than political favour.

Community First Governance

The United Democratic Front Party commits to a governance culture where:

• Councillors are visible and present in their wards.
• Community concerns are addressed promptly and professionally.
• Decisions are made based on evidence, consultation, and public interest.
• Councillors uphold the highest standards of ethics, service, and responsibility.

This approach ensures that communities receive the leadership they deserve.

6. Manifesto on Municipal Finance for the Cape Town Metropolitan Council

Vision

To foster an equitable Cape Town where all communities thrive, with balanced investments that uplift historically disadvantaged areas, while maintaining the continued growth, stability and maintenance of middle-class neighbourhoods. Our financial approach ensures that no community is neglected, and that historical backlogs are corrected without undermining existing municipal assets.

Core Principles

• Inclusive Growth — prioritise infrastructure and social development in vulnerable and historically disadvantaged areas to close long‑standing service delivery gaps.
• Sustainable Financial Management — protect services, infrastructure and property values in neighbourhoods to maintain city-wide functionality and investor confidence.
• Address Socio‑Economic Challenges — direct resources toward urgent issues such as crime, youth vulnerability, decaying public infrastructure and spatial inequality.

Budget Priorities

Balanced Resource Allocation.

• Allocate a significant portion of geographically and per capita targeted spending to historically disadvantaged areas, to promote economic opportunity and correct inherited infrastructure deficits.
• Ensure no disproportionate neglect of historically better resourced communities’ areas, recognising that their stability supports the city’s revenue base and long‑term sustainability.

Infrastructure Renewal and Development.

• Prioritise repairing and upgrading burst sewerage systems, water pipes, stormwater drains, and roads in vulnerable communities where failures impact health, mobility, and dignity.
• Invest in preventative maintenance across all neighbourhoods to avoid costly emergency repairs and environmental harm.
• Expand affordable housing initiatives, including the transfer the flats and formal housing, integrated with transport, utilities, and social services.

Crime Reduction and Safety.

• Increase funding for community safety programmes, partnerships with law enforcement and targeted interventions in high‑crime zones such as historically disadvantaged areas.
• Implement technology‑driven safety solutions, including enhanced street lighting, counter-surveillance systems and rapid‑response infrastructure.
• Support social programmes addressing root causes of crime: youth development, education, employment pathways, trauma support, and substance‑use interventions.

Community Engagement and Transparency.

• Engage residents from both historically better-resourced communities and disadvantaged communities in budget planning, ensuring that priorities reflect lived realities.
• Publish transparent reporting on expenditure, project progress, and outcomes to build trust and community ownership.
• Strengthen participatory budgeting forums and ward‑level financial consultations.
• Obtain community input on policy changes, for example regarding service delivery, tariff and rates arrears.

Sustainable Financial Management.

• Optimise revenue collection without placing an undue burden on low‑income families.
• Foster public‑private partnerships and collaborations with NGOs for co‑investment in social infrastructure, youth programmes and crime prevention.
• Maintain strict financial discipline to protect the City of Cape Town’s credit rating and long‑term fiscal stability.

Geographically Targeted Budget Distribution Model

Tilt new investment strongly toward historically disadvantaged communities, while maintaining sufficient operating expenditure in affluent areas to prevent the deterioration of existing assets.

Proposed geographic allocation based on per capita spending:

Rationale. 80:20 CAPEX is essential because capital spending corrects historical infrastructure inequality: sewer replacements, water mains, roads, stormwater systems, street lighting, public spaces, housing infrastructure, transport facilities, and community facilities.

70:30 OPEX ensures that historically better-resourced communities’ areas continue receiving essential services like refuse collection, sewer maintenance, road repairs, parks, electricity services and law enforcement. This ensures protection of municipal assets and the city’s revenue base.

Important Qualification. These percentages apply only to spending that can be geographically allocated. City-wide systems include bulk water infrastructure, wastewater treatment plants, major transport corridors, electricity networks, debt servicing, and central administration. Hence, these percentages will benefit the entire metro and should not be artificially classified by geography.

Manifesto Formulation. For every R10 of geographically targeted municipal capital investment, our objective will be approximately R8 for historically under‑invested communities and R2 for historically better‑resourced communities until measurable infrastructure backlogs have substantially narrowed. For operational expenditure, we propose an approximate 75:25 per capita balance, ensuring that disadvantaged communities receive greater resources while maintaining essential services and protecting municipal assets throughout Cape Town.

This allocation will be transitional, not permanent. Every three to five years, the City of Cape Town must assess:

• Sewer failures.
• Road conditions.
• Housing infrastructure.
• Street lighting.
• Public facilities.
• Crime hotspots.
• Service‑delivery backlogs.

As infrastructure gaps close, allocations can progressively move toward a needs‑based distribution.

Our Commitment

The United Democratic Front Party’s financial model is pro‑historical disadvantage in its orientation, while not disadvantaging communities that are already better resourced. The approach does not remove or reduce functioning services in any area. Instead, it directs a greater share of new investment toward communities that have historically received less, ensuring a more balanced and equitable distribution of future.

This approach builds a resilient, safe and equitable Cape Town, balancing historical inequities with present day realities and future aspirations.

7. Manifesto on Women and Youth Healing, Protection and Empowerment

The United Democratic Front Party believes that Cape Town cannot speak about youth and women empowerment without speaking honestly about the environment in which many of our people are trying to survive.

A child who grows up hearing gunshots, losing friends to gangs, witnessing violence or living with constant fear cannot be expected simply to “work harder”. A traumatised generation needs more than speeches – it needs opportunity, protection, healing and hope.

Gang violence continues to devastate communities across Cape Town, with the Cape Metro experiencing particularly high levels of violent crime.

Our approach will therefore be:

A City That Heals

We will support community-based trauma and psychosocial programmes for:

• Children exposed to gang violence and shootings.
• Women and families affected by violence.
• Victims and witnesses of violent crime.
• Young people at risk of gang recruitment.
• Schools in high-risk communities.

We will work with professional services, NGOs, faith-based organisations, schools and community organisations to bring support into the communities where people live, rather than expecting traumatised families to navigate complicated systems on their own.

Keeping Young People Out of Gangs

We will compete with and fight the gang economy by creating a legitimate economy of opportunity.

Our municipality will:

• Expand youth sports, arts, culture and recreation programmes.
• Support after-school and holiday programmes in high-risk communities.
• Create mentorship programmes connecting young people with positive adult role models.
• Partner with businesses to provide apprenticeships, internships and first-job opportunities.
• Support youth enterprises and cooperatives.
• Identify young people at risk of dropping out and connect them to education, skills and employment pathways.

The objective is not simply to tell a young person, “Don’t join a gang.”

It is to give them a credible, viable alternative.

Women’s Safety and Economic Independence

Women must be empowered to become economically independent and safe.

We will:

• Increase access to municipal procurement for qualifying women-owned businesses.
• Support women entrepreneurs with business development and market access.
• Develop skills programmes linked directly to employment.
• Improve lighting, public spaces and safer routes around transport and community facilities.
• Support community-based programmes for women affected by violence and trauma.
• Strengthen partnerships supporting women and children who are experiencing violence.

Turning Municipal Spending into Opportunity

Municipal procurement must become an instrument of empowerment.

Where legally permissible, we will structure appropriate contracts and supplier-development programmes so that women and young entrepreneurs can participate in the municipal economy.

We will not measure empowerment by how many people attend a workshop. We will measure it by how many people obtain employment, start sustainable businesses, win contracts, acquire skills and build independent livelihoods.

Different Future for Cape Town’s Youth

Our young people should not have to choose between unemployment and gangsterism.

We want a Cape Town where a young person from Retreat, Steenberg, Lavender Hill, Lotus River, Parkwood, Manenberg, Hanover Park, Gugulethu, Khayelitsha, Delft, Mitchells Plain, Philippi or any other community can see a future beyond the circumstances into which they were born.