By Lebone Rodah Mosima
Build One South Africa (BOSA) expects its mayors and councillors to take direct responsibility for manifesto commitments, with 100-day and first-year targets and plans setting out how delivery will be funded.
BOSA launched its 2026 Local Government Manifesto on Saturday in Joburg, promising that every major commitment would be assigned to a mayor, mayoral committee member, portfolio committee or ward councillor who could be held publicly accountable.
Party leader Mmusi Maimane said political parties should be judged on whether they deliver after elections rather than on the promises they make while campaigning.
“South Africans have heard enough manifestos that disappear the day after an election. We have approached this differently. Every commitment in our manifesto has a person responsible for delivering it, a timeline where appropriate, and a clear indication of how it will be funded,” Maimane said.
BOSA said its mayoral and councillor candidates had also signed a pledge committing them to pursue the manifesto in municipalities where they are elected.
The party said the manifesto includes 100-day and first-year targets for key commitments and proposes funding delivery through existing service revenue, reprioritised municipal budgets, public-private partnerships and performance-based grants rather than new debt or unfunded promises.
Among its commitments, BOSA said municipalities it leads would seek to improve the reliability of water, electricity, sanitation and refuse collection, maintain accurate indigent registers and publish turnaround times for pothole repairs and other road maintenance.
It also pledged to reform municipal procurement and publish budget and tender information, while ending political patronage in municipal appointments.
“Local government is where democracy becomes real for people,” Maimane said.
“It is whether the water comes out of the tap, whether the lights stay on, whether the pothole is fixed, whether the rubbish is collected, whether a business can open its doors and whether a young person can find an opportunity.”
The manifesto also includes measures aimed at local economic development, including municipal incubation funds for youth-led businesses and township enterprises, simpler licensing and trading requirements for small and informal businesses, and the release of suitable vacant municipal land and buildings for enterprise and skills development.
BOSA said it would also create local jobs databases to connect unemployed residents with opportunities.
On safety and transport, the party pledged to strengthen Metro Police, public lighting and community safety infrastructure and work towards integrated public transport systems connecting rail, buses, bus rapid transit and taxis.
Johannesburg mayoral candidate Nobuntu Hlazo-Webster said the accountability model was intended to address what the party sees as repeated failures by political leaders to deliver on commitments made to residents.
“For three decades, residents have told their municipalities what they need through elections, public participation processes and Integrated Development Plans. They have asked for functioning services, safer communities, jobs and accountable government. The failure has not been a lack of information about what residents want. It has been a failure of political leadership to deliver,” she said.
BOSA said its approach was to place residents at the centre of local government by making elected representatives directly responsible for their performance.
“Accountability is not asking residents to wait for the next election. It means knowing who is responsible, knowing what they promised, knowing when it should be delivered and being able to ask them why it has not happened,” Hlazo-Webster said.
BOSA will contest the elections in 24 municipalities across five provinces with 794 candidates. The party said 37% of its candidates are younger than 35 and 45% are women. It said candidates had been selected and vetted with an emphasis on professional experience, qualifications and skills required to govern.
“Our manifesto is not a generic list of promises,” Maimane said. “It is a commitment to restore something that has been badly damaged: trust. Trust that when government says it will do something, it will do it. Trust that public money will be spent properly. And trust that your political representative will answer when you call.”
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