The Democratic Alliance (DA) has again taken all the wards i

• Author: Lillian Amos and Roshan Abrahams
• Published date: 10 November 2021
• Publication title: Southern Mail

Nationally the African National Congress (ANC ) secured 46.05% of the vote, while the DA only managed to secure 21.83%. In Cape Town, however, the DA got 58.22% of the votes and the ANC only 18.63%.

DA candidate Kevin Southgate, who secured 69.4% of the vote in Ward 72, to serve another term as ward councillor, said: “Considering the fact that the ward boundaries had changed as two strong voting districts were moved to Ward 68 and that there were a number of new parties contesting the local government elections, I think that I did fairly well.

“I’m happy to have achieved 69.4% support, which is a clear indicator that residents were willing to lend me their vote to serve the community for another five years.”

Mr Southgate said he would focus on delivering on the promises he had made during his campaign. “I will focus on the issues highlighted in my promise to the community when I asked them to vote for me. I will therefore work to ensure that investment is made into the upgrade and maintenance of infrastructure as well as the upgrade of parks, sports facilities, public open spaces and the effective management of water bodies within the ward as these are the issues that have emerged from my engagement with communities.”

Mr Southgate said he would also be focusing on crime prevention initiatives which would include the installation of CCTV, working with and empowering accredited neighbourhood watches, illegal dumping, traffic calming and traffic congestion. “I will also ensure the delivery of basic services are maintained and in some instances improved,” he said.

Added to his to-do list, said Mr Southgate, was including “investment into increasing the levels of preventative maintenance with special reference to roads, electricity, stormwater, sewerage and waterways”.

Ward 63’s new councillor, Carmen Siebritz, was overjoyed to officially start working in her ward after she won 69.56% of the votes. The ward had been without a ward councillor since the passing of Montgomery Oliver earlier this year.

While Ms Siebritz had not served as a public representative before she had already been “working on the ground”, long before being voted in and had been brainstorming ideas on how to help residents.

Ms Siebritz said she had already been inundated with calls and messages on the way forward: “I am excited to take on this new challenge and I’m looking forward to building partnerships with residents and organisations to improve things and make communities better. I hope...