Will the Real Geordin Hill-Lewis Please Stand up
Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis is the front-runner to replace John Steenhuisen as the next DA leader—but who is he, and what does he really stand for?
There is much to admire about Hill-Lewis. He is capable, intelligent, resourceful, and—towards Steenhuisen at least—refreshingly loyal. He has won many friends as the enigmatic mayor of South Africa’s ‘Mother City’, but for me at least, one question mark hangs over his head. Belying his youth, he has proven himself a past master of public relations—but how genuine is the picture we are being presented of him?
Centre-left or centre-right?
Hill-Lewis secured his mayoral candidacy as the darling of the DA’s right: a protégé of Zille and endorsed by Steenhuisen. At the time, the DA’s primary mission was to convince voters that its dalliance with “wokeness” under Maimane and Mazibuko was an aberration, and that under its 'pale riders of the right', it was once again safe to return.
Hill-Lewis played his part perfectly. “What of the rule of law? If you do the crime, you must do the time. No matter who you are.” “Focus on removing obstacles to growth and stop trying to plan the whole economy.” “Cape Town must be the place to demonstrate to the rest of South Africa that the vision of a truly non-racial society is attainable.” Cape Town elected a mayor who professed belief in the rule of law and equality before it, advocated small government and limited intervention, and opposed race-based policies.
Once in office, however, Hill-Lewis moved markedly leftward, advancing an agenda that differed materially from the platform on which he was elected. From the outset, his target audience was clear: the black vote that had eluded the DA even under Maimane’s racial populism. This would be eminently sensible—admirable even—if pursued in line with the DA's stated policy positions and his own pre-election political persona, but it was not.
A new agenda
There were two critical points of divergence: a U-turn on equality before the law, and the betrayal of middle-class ratepayers who had been lured back into the DA’s fold. To put it plainly, migrants—predominantly from the Eastern Cape—began to receive a legal free pass, while law-abiding ratepayers were fleeced and strong-armed into funding what effectively amounted to a rewards programme for unlawful behaviour.
To limit the potential damage, Hill-Lewis engaged in a calculated campaign of political propaganda. Provincial migration was presented as a net positive for the province—an indication of success.The unlawful occupation of land on a vast scale—an unavoidable and acceptable reality. The obligation to provide services and facilities—a humanitarian necessity. The subsequent bill—something philanthropic ratepayers should willingly embrace. The talking point: the DA does it better than anyone else.
The reality is far more mundane.
Provincial migration is out of control, and when it comes to informal settlements, the rule of law has collapsed. On a per-capita basis, the Western Cape has one of the highest rates of informal settlements in the country (Statistics South Africa, General Household Survey 2024). Migrants who engage in unlawful behaviour are not a net positive; they constitute a sizeable burden to the local fiscus, consuming a disproportionate share of the City and Province’s budget. The City has been forced to write off billions in unpaid debt (City of Cape Town budget and financial statements). To plug the corresponding hole in the City’s budget, ratepayers have been saddled with effective increases more than three times the rate of inflation (City of Cape Town 2025/26 Budget; Statistics South Africa CPI), and to disguise those increases the City has introduced additional levies to fund services they are already paying for.
To add insult to injury, the City has tacitly adopted a two-tier justice system. Law-abiding ratepayers must comply with the City’s strict planning guidelines while being saddled with excessive rates increases that many simply cannot afford. Meanwhile, Hill-Lewis recently announced that the City no longer regarded multi-storey dwellings in townships such as Du Noon as planning violations, but rather as a solution to the housing crisis—a crisis the City’s own policies are exacerbating by rewarding unlawful conduct. That is most certainly not the ticket on which our ‘right-wing’ mayor got himself elected.
DA facilitating their own demise
The deepest irony is that this policy of appeasement will ultimately deprive the DA of power in the Western Cape. Not only will a majority of the Western Cape’s residents eventually be from the Eastern Cape, but they will also bring with them the political dispensation they ran away from. Research and post-election voting analyses suggest that only a tiny percentage—around 3%—of Eastern Cape provincial migrants vote DA upon arrival.
The solution to the Eastern Cape’s well-documented problems lies in better choices by Eastern Cape voters, not in their mass relocation to the Western Cape. Hill-Lewis must know this, which begs the question: why? The answer may lie in his ambition to lead the DA at a national level, where the optics differ significantly from those in the Western Cape.
An appeal for transparency
Democracy is a contest of ideas. I have no quarrel with Hill-Lewis advancing a redistributive agenda, nor with him arguing for a relativist approach to law and order. I do, however, believe he should declare his true political agenda before the votes are counted—not after.
Pointedly, when it comes to double-talk, the apple did not fall far from the tree. The DA also went into the 2024 elections promising the moon (pun intended), but delivered cheese. The Moonshot Pact (Multi-Party Charter), dominated by the DA, promised that it could remove the ANC from power. It was never even remotely possible, and the DA—who polls every single week—knew this beyond any reasonable doubt. Throughout its election campaign, right up until election day, it sold the lie regardless.
When News24 reported that the DA was secretly considering a coalition with the ANC, the party categorically refuted the claim—only to form a coalition with the ANC shortly after the election. To neutralise the Cape Independence movement, John Steenhuisen promised the Western Cape that, on the very first day in national government, the DA would table a Western Cape Devolution Bill. Not only did it do no such thing, but it quietly abandoned the Western Cape Provincial Powers Bill, which it had already tabled and had the majority to pass. Devolution is now effectively off the agenda.
We all know politics can be a dirty business, but I am sure I am not alone in thinking that it does not have to be. Years ago, a UK company called Ronseal ran an iconic ad for quick drying wood stain. Their by-line subsequently became a powerful political idiom: “It does exactly what it says on the tin.” I hope that, going forward, Hill-Lewis and the DA will take their cue from Ronseal.
I have little doubt that Hill-Lewis would make an exceptional DA leader. My only plea is that, before the voting is done—be that during the leadership contest or the local government election later this year or early next—will the real Geordin Hill-Lewis please stand up?
This article was first published in BizNews: https://www.biznews.com/leadership/ghl-steenhuisen-phil-craig
