Cape Town - In a bid to win over the city’s ward 111, Cape Coloured Congress candidate councillor Victor De Lilly has been hard at work canvassing – unfettered by the potent interest of at least 30 other hopeful candidates.
Ward 111 covers Kraaifontein communities, Belmont Park, Scottsville, Peerless Park, Eikendal and Brackenfell.
De Lilly, no stranger to the world of politics, will be contesting ward 111 for the second time following his initial campaign in the last local government elections.
Speaking to the Cape Argus on why he’s running for local councillor, De Lilly said that the move was in line with his efforts to work towards addressing some of the issues that residents living in ward 111 were facing.
These included are a lack of employment opportunities, inequality, poverty and ongoing gangsterism and rising crime.
“Ward triple one is my home, I have been working in this community for years now. I belonged to various community-based organisations, participated in stakeholder engagements and even designed programmes for the youth. I also work to facilitate service delivery in my capacity at times.
“So when I thought about it, I realised that I could do so much more with the necessary support and relevant resources. Not only that, but as someone who has been working here for so long, I understand the challenges. I experience the same issues that have gone unresolved for years, issues that eventually morphed into other big problems.
“This is because you often get someone who does not engage with the community, who does not take time to understand exactly how to work with people for the benefit of the greater good. Which leaves us with a mountain of issues like we have here: crippling poverty, lack of employment equity, rampant gangsterism and crime, and overall an unequal ward.
“We are left having to level the playing field when things should never have reached this point. People living in the same ward should be getting the same services, the same opportunities, and it’s not to say that, that’s impossible because it’s not.
“I’m especially focusing on our youth. They need proper development and we need to invest in them.
“We have high unemployment rates, a very high rate of school drop-outs. And all of this filters into other issues, like crime. Our children are disadvantaged on a large scale and set to inherit issues – the same issues their parents had to face, lack of housing, poverty and overcrowding.
“To tackle these problems, we need to develop our communities, invest in our youth, provide dignified services for our people.
“To our residents, do not think sitting back and not voting is how you will get things to change. We need to go and vote, so I’m urging everyone who can to please go and vote come November 1,” said De Lilly.