GOOD Celebrates First Birthday

GOOD celebrated its first birthday in February after being registered as a political party on 13 February 2019.

We didn’t waste any money on partying, but do want to thank all those who have supported us. When Patricia De Lille resigned from the Democratic Alliance in 2018, thousands of South Africans urged her to continue the good fight. They were tired of poli-tricks, poli-promises and poli-lies. They were tired of waiting for things to get better in their communities. They were tired of corruption. They were tired of old parties caring more about themselves than ordinary voters. The DA did its best to stop us by making up a whole lot of lies about De Lille. But three times, the courts rejected their lies. The truth is, Aunty Pat left the DA when it became clear that the party was opposed to integration. Although the majority of its supporters in Cape Town lives on the Cape Flats, its decision-making was driven by the interests of those living closer to the mountain. Although we only had a few months to prepare for the 2019 elections we were persuaded by our people to contest. They said they has had enough of politicians shouting at each other without offering anything else. We said we wanted to be the first constructive opposition party in South Africa. Constructive opposition includes holding powerful people to account, exposing corruption and non-delivery, but also supporting programmes that are good, and developing new ideas. We are happy with the progress we have made. We have exposed corruption in the City of Cape Town, which we have taken to the provincial Standing Committee on Public Accounts for further investigation. We have exposed corruption in the George Municipality, and submitted a dossier of evidence to the Public Protector. Our secretary-general, Brett Herron, is far and away the most active member of an opposition party in the Western Cape Provincial Parliament, and when Aunty Pat was asked to serve as National Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure, she immediately began to clamp down on corruption in that department. At our policy conference last year, one of our resolutions was to use public land for the benefit of all South Africans. Within weeks of her appointment as Minister, De Lille halted the disposal of hundreds of parcels of land to the private sector. Instead, 220 large properties are now being made available for land redistribution and housing purposes. Vacant government buildings are being released for shelters for the victims of gender-based violence. In line with the GOOD policy position that public land must be used for public good, she also stopped plans to sell 25 pieces of land in District Six in Cape Town, and confirmed that her department was releasing 100 properties to speed up outstanding land restitution cases. Just 188 properties had been released over the past 20 years! South Africa can be fixed. While the old political parties focus on protecting themselves while undermining each other, GOOD people are committed to fixing South Africa.