Note to editors: This is an extract of a speech delivered by DA Leader Helen Zille in Quigney, East London (Buffalo City) this morning. Buffalo City will become South Africa's seventh metro municipality after the 2011 local elections

Fellow South Africans,

I am here today to offer you hope. It is the hope of a better life for all.

That is the promise another party has been making for a long time. But, while they have been busy promising you a better life, we have been busy delivering it.

That's what makes this election different.

This time, voters can compare the DA's track record in the places it governs with the ANC's track record in places like East London.

After this election, Buffalo City will be made into a metro municipality. This means that East London will join the ranks of the big cities of our country - Cape Town, Johannesburg, the East Rand, Durban, Pretoria and Port Elizabeth.

But if you think that becoming a metro will mean real change in East London, you are going to be disappointed.

You know better than me what has been happening here in East London over the last five years. You know about the R 2 billion of ratepayer's money that, according to the Auditor-General, has simply disappeared.

You know about the independent report released in January which found that 14 tenders had been awarded irregularly. You know about the political in-fighting that is destroying the municipality's ability to deliver.

You know that too many people in East London are still without access to water, sanitation, electricity and refuse removal. And you remember the local government MEC's comments just two months ago that the Buffalo City municipality is on the verge of "total collapse."

Becoming a metro municipality will not eradicate all these problems. The only way to change things here is to vote for change on May 18. That is what the people of Cape Town did on 1 March 2006. They too were tired of corruption and poor service delivery under the ANC.

Before the DA-led coalition took office in 2006, Cape Town was in a mess. The metro could not manage its money. It was going bankrupt. The City was owed R4 billion in unpaid rates and taxes.

Infrastructure was neglected. Sewage was flooding on to the streets of the city centre. The City was employing people who didn't have the skills to do their jobs properly.

The metro police service was under capacity. There was not enough money for the firemen and nurses we desperately needed. Corruption was out of control.

So what did the DA do when we took power? We started by getting the basics right. We appointed qualified technical personnel and increased funding for the fire, health and metro police services.

We wrote off the debt owed by the very poor and began a revenue collection drive. Within one year, we had collected R1 billion of outstanding debt. This meant we had more money for service delivery.

It meant rates rebates and more FREE basic services to more poor people. It meant we could triple what we spent on infrastructure over the next three years.

We cut crime in the CBD by 90%. And we started pilot projects to tackle crime and the causes of crime in priority areas like Khayelitsha. We accelerated the provision of housing from 2, 000 units in 2003 to 9,000 units in 2009.

We did not perform any miracles in Cape Town. We just focused on the basics. It's amazing what a difference you can make, over time, when you get the basics right. By 2009 - after three years of DA government - the City began to be recognised as the best-run City in the country.

The rating's agency Moody's said that Cape Town was at the "high end of the five metropolitan municipalities." The BEE ratings agency Empowerdex said that "Cape Town is clearly the best city in the country for service delivery."

Data providers IHS Global Insight, ranked Cape Town the top metro in terms of household access to water, sanitation, refuse removal and electricity. In 2010, the national government, recognised that Cape Town was number one in South Africa for access to services in two separate studies.

Nobody can argue with the simple truth: More poor people in Cape Town have access to more basic services than anywhere else. The DA is not perfect. We are human beings, we make mistakes. But when we do, we try to fix them.

We want to be given the chance to fix other towns and cities around the country too. In five years we could make a big difference in East London, just like we did in Cape Town.

The choice is yours.

You can choose another five years of corruption, poor service delivery and political in-fighting. Or you can choose the DA. So, whatever you do, make sure you vote on 18 May.

And Vote DA.

Because the DA delivers for all!

Issued by the Democratic Alliance, April 4 2011

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