Cape Town - Politics, as usual, has failed too many South Africans and the people have lost faith in politics and politicians, former Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille said on Saturday.
Speaking at the launch of her newly established "GOOD" party's Western Cape premier election campaign, she said, "God forbid they should lose faith in our democracy because the people in politics have not lived up to the privilege and responsibility to serve. It is time for a new political order.
"Duty and service runs through my blood, so I would be honoured to serve my country and my province, which I love, as the premier of the Western Cape," De Lille said.
"I am motivated by the same level of outrage at the state of our country, and the inequalities in our province, as I was 50 years ago when I was outraged by the cruelty and illegality of apartheid. And I am responding to the call to act. GOOD will put people before politics.
"For far too long we have lived with political and government agendas that have been determined by those who have the power of money. Money is what too many politicians and political parties are greedy for. Money and land should not be able to buy our future, as is currently the case in our province which is being sold to the highest bidder," she said.
De Lille again lashed out at the Democratic Alliance - who she represented as Cape Town mayor for seven years until she resigned last year after a bitter altercation with top DA leaders - saying the party had "abused" her and "a cabal within the DA, clearly opposed to fixing the apartheid spatial plan, turned against me".
"For two years I endured a vile and relentless dirty-tricks campaign to get rid of me as mayor of Cape Town and to damage my reputation. I have spent my entire life fighting for a society that is just, fair and caring and I will never rest until this is achieved," she said.