STELLENBOSCH – A heated debate played out at the Toyota Stellenbosch Woordfees on Wednesday 7 October, as Stellenbosch’s mayoral candidates faced off in a fiery exchange.

The candidates vying for Stellenbosch’s hot seat – with Carl Niehaus of the EFF the only non-local contender among them – took to the RSG stage at the Stellenbosch University Museum to make their case as to why their parties should take the reins of the municipality.

Current executive mayor Jeremy Fasser, the DA’s mayoral candidate for the Local Government Election (LGE), was joined by Jacobus Davids (ANC), Marius van Stade (Good), JC MacFarlane (FF+) and Niehaus.

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Moderated by RSG presenter Suzaan Paxton, the candidates took the opportunity not only to push their political policies, but also to hit each other where it hurt. Social housing (or rather the lack thereof), service delivery, job creation and the gap between Stellenbosch’s haves and have-nots were the hot topics.

Services for all

According to Davids, what the town needs is a local government that will serve the entire Stellenbosch, not merely the more affluent neighbourhoods.

“Here it is lush and green, but just go next door to Enkanini (Kayamandi) and there are no services, potholes and no refuse collection. Yet we are told Stellenbosch is the best-run municipality in the province after the Cape Metro. If it is so, why must the poor children of Kayamandi, Cloetesville, Ida’s Valley, Langrug and Franschhoek live in filth daily?” Davids asked.

Service delivery for all was on all the candidates’ lips, with Van Stade adding that his party’s main focus would be bringing municipal services to all residents.

According to MacFarlane, the key to a better-run Stellenbosch Municipality is to have accessible and accountable councillors to whom community members have a direct line. “We believe smaller municipalities mean more power in the hands of citizens – more community and less municipality. Government needs to be close to the people and money that comes from wards needs to be invested back into those same wards, which currently doesn’t happen,” MacFarlane said.

He added that cadre deployment, bureaucracy and red tape will become a thing of the past if the FF+ is in charge.

No holding back

The vocal audience had plenty of comments and criticisms for the parties.

There was much noise from the audience when Niehaus highlighted the EFF’s “track record” in parts of Johannesburg. “Go to Johannesburg and find out who opened 24-hour clinics – it is the EFF. So we, as a party, do what we say we will do and we have a record to prove this. The focus of our manifesto is to unite the people, give them equal rights, end apartheid spatial development and stop what the DA has done here,” Niehaus pointed out.

He said Fasser should be ashamed to admit he is from Cloetesville, given that “Cloetesville looks the way it does”.

For his part, the mayor said if his party retains its hold of the municipality come Wednesday 4 November, it will continue to build on the work of the last 15 years.

Housing woes

However, the lack of social housing built by the DA in the last decade and a half remained one of the biggest criticisms from all opposition parties, as well as audience members.

“Build the houses in Stellenbosch, just build them!” one local shot at Fasser from the audience.

Fasser said that now, thanks to the Government of National Unity (GNU) and intervention on both provincial and national level, the backlog could be tackled despite the over-regulation of local government. “However, the most important thing is that service delivery happens in all areas of this municipality. If you open the taps, there is water. We don’t have to bring in tanks to distribute water,” Fasser said.

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In terms of housing, Van Stade and Davids both said that the Stellenbosch Municipality must stop making excuses, make its own land available for housing projects and stop selling its land to developers to create more gated communities for the select few who can afford it.

If the mayoral debate is anything to go by, residents are tired of empty promises and excuses from all political parties and will have no problem calling any of the would-be mayors and hopeful ruling parties out on their promises at the ballot box.