Local government can be restored and municipalities’ decline can be turned around. This is the gist of the message conveyed by the Freedom Front Plus (VF Plus) with its Manifesto Launch under the theme “It is Our Time”. (Manifesto attached)
The Manifesto, which was unveiled at the Silver Lakes Farm Hotel in Pretoria East, marks a new beginning and provides practical solutions to restore local government, uplift communities and offer them hope for the future.
The Freedom Front Plus’s theme represents “our” supporters, who include everyone who is not prepared to accept municipal decline and poor service delivery; ordinary, law-abiding citizens who want to live in peace, who want value for money, and who want a better future for themselves and their children.
Local government in South Africa has been plunged into total chaos. Service delivery is failing. Most municipalities are unsustainable and on the verge of bankruptcy. In the few cases where the decline is less obvious, it is still happening, it may only be less apparent.
There is no need to convince anyone by providing figures or examples. Everyone experiences it on a daily basis: water shortages, polluted water, roads riddled with potholes, streetlights that are either out of order or burning all day, traffic lights that do not work, sewage spilling into the streets, rivers and the sea.
For this, the public shell out exorbitant amounts for property rates and sky-high tariffs, while incorrect utility bills are a common phenomenon.
This is happening all across the country, from the smallest rural village to the largest metro. Towns have been merged to form larger municipal or metro councils, but the only notable improvement has been to councillors’ and senior officials’ remuneration.
In 1994, there were 1 262 local municipalities, in contrast to today’s 213 with rapidly growing urban populations. Municipalities are unable to provide adequate services to their unrealistically vast service areas.
The Freedom Front Plus’s 2026 Manifesto, therefore, details a recovery plan to stop municipalities’ decline. Rising rates, high unemployment, mismanagement and incompetent officials paid excessive salaries are increasingly leading to infrastructure crises and poor service delivery.
Against this backdrop, the current policy model that prioritises political loyalty over merit has failed completely.
The Freedom Front Plus’s theme “It is Our Time” proposes a plan based on five key principles: communities first; merit and expertise; financial accountability; the freedom to build and grow; and stable coalitions.
The following ten-point plan stems from this and entails, among other things:
• Devolution of power
• Effective tax expenditure
• Fair and accurate rates and taxes
• Infrastructure maintenance
• Holding officials financially accountable
• A healthy and safe environment
• Economic growth and job creation
• Merit-based appointments
• Christian values and equality
• Stable coalitions
The Freedom Front Plus believes this plan will bring about prosperity for everyone who considers themselves “our” supporters. This includes Afrikaners and other minority communities who want to protect our language, culture, heritage and identity, and who simultaneously want to play an active role in building a prosperous South Africa.
Our supporters are the clerks, managers, tradesmen and labourers who work long hours under difficult circumstances to feed and support their families.
Our supporters are the lawyers, architects, engineers, quantity surveyors, doctors and many other professionals who contribute to building our country every day.
Our supporters are the farmers and farm workers who, despite crime, droughts, difficult economic circumstances and often no support from government, still ensure that there is food on South Africans’ tables.
Our supporters are truck drivers, train operators, factory workers and mine workers whose labour keeps the wheels of the economy turning.
Our supporters are commuters who have to brave all weather conditions and travel for hours every day, because public infrastructure and transport services do not function as they should.
Our supporters are the people who cannot find work, but do not rely on government aid; who create their own opportunities through market stalls, informal trade and small enterprises, selling baked goods, vegetables, fruit, hand-made items and other products to support their families.
Our supporters are all those who pay constantly escalating rates and taxes, but all too often do not receive services in return.
Our supporters are the people who have lost their jobs or who struggle to find work, because government policy and discriminatory legislation limit opportunities.
Our supporters are the young people with big dreams and ambition to succeed through their hard work, talent and merit.
Our supporters are God-fearing and law-abiding citizens who believe in strong family ties, community values and mutual respect; people who simply want to live in peace, free from the fear of crime and the burden of corruption, mismanagement and collapsing service delivery.
Our supporters believe that no South African should be disadvantaged because of race, language, or culture, and that every citizen should have equal opportunities to flourish.
Our supporters are the ones who keep this country going.
Our supporters pay the bills.
Our supporters want to build a better future for our children.
Our supporters have had enough of the hopelessly corrupt ANC.
It is who we are.
It is you. It is me.
And it is our time.
