South Africa’s opposition party the Democratic Alliance’s (DA’s) Ekurhuleni mayoral candidate, Ghaleb Cachalia, began his 30-day listening tour in Johannesburg ahead of the upcoming municipal elections on August 3 in an effort to unseat current mayor Mondli Gungubele.

Cachalia announced his campaign phase at the Kempton Park Civic Centre on Tuesday where he said he wanted to visit every community in the municipality.

“I want to hear from citizens from all walks of life. I want to partner with the communities, small and big businesses,” he said.

He recently visited three communities, including Lindelani in Ward 71 in Daveyton, where there are about 5 000 households in shacks with no basic services.

Cachalia explained that the visits were not intended to “make pie in the sky promises” and added that after hearing what the communities needed his party would produce a localised manifesto which would guide them in delivering the basic services.

“I did not want to make promises until I hear what the people wanted,” he said.

He went on to say that the DA was campaigning to win the municipal elections and added that the party had no plans for a coalition at this stage.

“Essentially we are competing with ourselves and we will win,” he added.

Cachalia promised to serve the DA in the municipality even if the party failed to take over from the opposition party during the upcoming local government elections.