South Africa’s newly-elected Democratic Alliance (DA) party leader, Geordin Hill-Lewis, said he was committed to making the governing coalition work and was due to meet President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday.
Cape Town Mayor Hill-Lewis was elected head of the pro-business DA at a party conference over the weekend.
The DA is the second-biggest party in the “Government of National Unity” coalition formed in 2024, when Ramaphosa’s African National Congress lost its parliamentary majority in an election.
Hill-Lewis told reporters on Monday that he thought the coalition government was “the best chance that South Africa’s had in probably 25 years … to get our country on a better path of higher growth and more jobs and proper reform”.
He described his appointment with Ramaphosa on Tuesday as a “get-to-know-you meeting”.
“I’m not going there to try and throw any weight around,” Hill-Lewis said, adding that he wanted to remain as Cape Town mayor rather than seeking a post in national government.
Hill-Lewis has been mayor of South Africa’s second-biggest city and tourism hub since the last municipal elections in 2021.
