DA launches ‘Get Joburg Working For All’ campaign in Orange Grove

The Democratic Alliance launched its Joburg election poster campaign in Orange Grove on Wednesday, unveiling the slogan “Get Joburg Working For All” and outlining priorities the party said will address service and infrastructure failures.

What the launch said

At the launch the party’s national leader, Geordin Hill-Lewis, provincial leader Solly Msimanga and mayoral candidate Helen Zille unveiled the campaign liner. The event followed the party’s manifesto launch.

Campaign message

Hill-Lewis described the slogan as simple but resonant for residents who have experienced deteriorating infrastructure and unreliable basic services. He framed the DA’s priorities as clean government, responsible management of public money, investment in essential infrastructure and professional appointments in municipalities.

“It is not a big, grand, miraculous political promise. Just to get towns and cities working again after years of poor management, corruption and infrastructure decline. We are interested in making Joburg, and every town and city work for everyone,”

Criticism of the ANC

Hill-Lewis also criticised the governing party’s presence on the campaign trail in the city, saying:

“I don’t know if the ANC have thrown in the towel in this city. I hope they have,”

Helen Zille on local decline

At the Orange Grove launch, Zille said the area had changed from how she remembered it and tied physical decline to a loss of civic pride.

“This whole area has been killed and destroyed. And I remember so clearly what it used to be like,”

She said residents had adapted to failing services, describing that shift in expectations as dangerous to community standards.

“When this kind of thing happens, it destroys the pride of the community… When things start collapsing, they don’t complain for months. They actually adjust and get used to it, and it becomes the new normal. People forgot what normal should look like.”

Where the campaign goes from here

The DA presented the poster campaign as a focused message of restoring municipal function rather than a sweeping promise. The party emphasised practical management of services and infrastructure as central to its pitch to Joburg voters.