Good announces premier candidate list, De Lille in running for Western Cape premier

Patricia de Lille’s Good party has announced their premier candidates for the Western Cape, North West, Northern Cape, and Gauteng provinces. The party made the selection after their provincial coordinating committees, in each province, were requested to submit nominations to the national leadership.

The Western Cape provincial coordinating committee unanimously agreed that De Lille would be the most suitable candidate for the province. Other premier candidate nominees were Vivien Law for North West, Leonard McKay for Northern Cape, and Lehlohonolo Mtshali for Gauteng.

Law is a philanthropist and farmer in North West. The Good deputy national organiser also runs Parliament of the People, a non-profit company that establishes residents’ forums and committees in rural and urban communities where there are critical service delivery challenges.

Former ANC member McKay runs various art projects in the Northern Cape. He is also a writer and has won first prize in the SABC education writers competition for a short story he produced.

Mtshali, a former DA member also resigned from the DA as a councillor in 2017. He served as a councillor in the Ekhuruleni Metropolitan government for 6 years. He is now the deputy secretary general for Good.

The eight-week-old party announced their manifesto plans to “fix” South Africa, last week. Their key focus areas are spatial, economic, social, and environmental justice. The party, with apparently around 67,000 said they would reveal their election campaign and announce their premier candidates after the president’s state of the nation address.

“People needed to be employed,” said De Lille, during their manifesto launch last week. She added that she was prepared to turn government on its head for a change.

“Our country needs leaders with courage to tackle structural racism in our society.”

Addressing her party members through the party’s Facebook live stream, she said gender and race could not determine anyone’s opportunities.

She mentioned that Good would provide measures to ensure no one will be left out of opportunities due to the lack of data.

Although the party was launched months before the general elections, De Lille is convinced the party will disrupt the current status quo.

(Compiled by Gopolang Chawane)

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