Hill-Lewis Lays Out Plans for Party, Promises Stronger DA

A strong Democratic Alliance (DA) is key to building a stronger South Africa.

This was the message from Geordin Hill-Lewis, the Mayor of Cape Town, who was speaking at a press conference where he said he would be running to become the next leader of the DA.

He said he would seek a mandate at the DA’s federal congress on 11 April, where the next leader is due to be elected, to lead the party into its next phase. According to Hill-Lewis, the leadership contest offers an opportunity not only for renewal but also to elevate younger leaders within the party.

Hill-Lewis framed his candidacy as part of a broader effort to restore confidence in the country’s political future. He said South Africa’s politics had become dominated by division and blame, while most citizens shared a far simpler goal: a country that works and offers hope.

Paraphrasing a famous quote by Alan Paton, one of South Africa’s leading liberal thinkers of the 20th century, Hill-Lewis said, “Politics must be rooted in a generosity of spirit, a tolerance of others, and a commitment to the rule of law.”

Hill-Lewis said that ever since he started his political journey he had tried his best to live up to those values.

He then highlighted his record governing Cape Town as evidence that decline is not inevitable when institutions function properly. He pointed to the city’s investment in infrastructure and affordable housing, and said Cape Town had led the country in job creation in recent years.

“Cape Town has created 470 000 new jobs, more than all other cities combined,” he said, presenting the figure as proof that effective local government can deliver tangible economic gains.

He set out four priorities should he win the leadership. The first is ensuring the DA is widely recognised as a party capable of governing effectively for all South Africans.

Said Hill-Lewis: “Where we govern, the basics are taken seriously. Budgets are managed. Competent people are appointed. Institutions function. Services are delivered. Not everyone will always like us. They may not always agree with us. But whether they like us or not, everyone should have to agree that we do the best in government, and for everyone. No one must ever be able to say that we cannot govern – or that we govern only for a few.”

Hill-Lewis’s second priority would be to expand the party’s support by engaging communities that have historically not voted for the DA, saying that while many people acknowledged that the DA governed better than the ANC. they still would not vote for the party. Hill-Lewis said that many people viewed the party as “distant” and this had to change, and trust had to be built up between the party and people who had not traditionally supported it.

Thirdly, he argued that the DA should play a constructive but assertive role in the Government of National Unity (GNU) rather than coasting quietly within the coalition. Hill-Lewis said that entering the coalition had been the correct action because a DA that condemned itself to eternal opposition status was a weak party. However, Hill-Lewis said that if the DA just drifted in the coalition it would be just as weak.

Hill-Lewis said: “I know that it is difficult to walk the tightrope between competition and cooperation in a governing coalition. And how hard it is to know when to compromise and when to draw a line. I will make sure that, under my leadership, the DA works daily to shape the direction of government. Because a genuine partnership to fix the country cannot be all one-way traffic; it must be a two-way street.”

Finally, he emphasised the importance of restoring public belief in South Africa’s future, urging supporters to focus less on rhetoric and more on practical action.

He said: “If elected as the leader of the DA, I will make it my mission to restore hope in our country. A country of hope. Not the politics of blind optimism, or feel-good sloganeering. I am talking about the hope that comes when we genuinely adopt a ‘can-do’ mindset, when we run towards our problems instead of away from them. I am talking about the hope that comes through doing, through rolling up our sleeves and fixing what is broken.”

Closing his speech, Hill-Lewis called on party members to rally behind a simple ambition: to build a stronger DA capable of helping to build a stronger country.

Hill-Lewis’s candidacy is seen as something of a changing of the guard within the party, with Hill-Lewis only turning 40 this year (his birthday is on the last day of the year). A number of other young DA politicians are likely to also be elected to leadership roles at next month’s conference, including Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube and former Mayor of Tshwane Cilliers Brink.

The DA has been polling relatively strongly in recent months and it could be the biggest political party in South Africa after the next national election in 2029. But Hill-Lewis, if elected as leader, will have to face a number of tests before then, including leading the DA into the next local government election (where it could be the single biggest party in most of South Africa’s metros) and handling the challenges of being in the GNU.