The DA has launched its Election Pledges to the people of Ekurhuleni, declaring it a definitive promise that the city will be rescued from crippling institutional corruption and structural collapse.

Speaking at the party’s campaign launch alongside the DA’s mayoral candidate for Ekurhuleni Khathu Rasilingwane, DA leader Geordin Hill-Lewis pulled no punches about the scale of the crisis he said was facing the municipality.

Hill-Lewis claimed that "State capture never truly ended in Ekurhuleni". Instead, he argued, the metro had “mutated into the epicentre of a Gangster State" where he stated political corruption was enforced through fear.

"Every contract, every service, everything is corrupted, so that politicians and senior officials can steal millions and millions out of the city. And their corruption is protected by gangsters who will murder to keep it quiet," he said.

According to the DA, the everyday struggles of Ekurhuleni residents were a result of a deeply entrenched criminal network.

The DA is positioning Rasilingwane as the "strong medicine" needed to deal with corruption. The party highlighted its governance track record in Cape Town, the Western Cape, Midvaal, and Umgeni as proof that “clean, transparent” governance is possible in South Africa.

Hill-Lewis highlighted that the party’s campaign outlined a choice between two visions for the residents of Ekurhuleni - one the failed vision of the ANC, EFF and MK, which he said was more “State control, more corruption, more cadre deployment, more racial division, more reckless spending, more hostility to business, and more empty promises”.

On the other side was the DA’s vision of “growing economy, honest government, safe communities, quality services, infrastructure that works, and a State that helps people to build their own future”, he said.

The rescue plan targets urgent revitalisation across Tembisa, Katlehong, Benoni, Boksburg, Kempton Park, Germiston, and Edenvale. The primary objectives focus on fixing potholes, securing electricity grids, stabilising water supply, and building a professional, responsive municipal administration that actively welcomed job-creating investment.