Ramaphosa's DA praise turns governance gap into market story

South Africa’s governing performance gap has become a market story, and the country’s own president has said so. At a billboard launch in Cape Town, the Democratic Alliance put up a message drawn directly from President Cyril Ramaphosa, who told thousands of ANC councillors last year that the municipalities performing best are often those run by the DA, not his own party.

The quote at the centre of the campaign is blunt. “Those municipalities that do best are not ANC-controlled municipalities … they are often DA-controlled municipalities,” Ramaphosa told the councillors. He went further, encouraging them to visit Cape Town and Stellenbosch to see how the DA gets things done.

For the opposition, the presidential endorsement carries weight precisely because it speaks to the conditions investors and businesses care about. DA Leader Geordin Hill-Lewis, who recorded English and Afrikaans voicenotes alongside the launch, welcomed the remarks. “I agree with the President,” he said, thanking Ramaphosa for what he called a clear endorsement of DA governance and for acknowledging what millions of South Africans already know from their own lived experience: where the DA governs, things work better.

The economic logic behind that claim is straightforward. Municipal performance shapes whether businesses can grow, whether investment can flow and whether jobs can be created. Hill-Lewis argued that the standard of service seen in DA-run municipalities should not be the exception in South Africa but the rule, and that every South African deserves a municipality that delivers clean water, fixes potholes, collects refuse, keeps public spaces safe and spends public money on the people it is meant to serve.

He framed the party’s record as proof of viability rather than aspiration. “That is not an impossible dream. We are already doing it,” he said, while conceding that there is more work to do in every municipality the party governs. The record, he argued, shows what is possible when capable people put residents first.

The campaign’s pitch to voters is an extension of that argument: that competent local administration, once demonstrated, can be scaled. Hill-Lewis said it is time to bring the same hope and progress to millions more South Africans, closing with a direct call to action. “Don’t just hope for change. Vote for change. Because South Africa can work. For everyone.”

Pictures from the billboard launch were released with the statement, alongside the recorded messages from the party leader. Whether the endorsement translates into electoral gains for the DA, or into pressure on the ANC to fix its municipal balance sheet, is the question now hanging over both parties.