GOOD Statement by Keagen Gertse,
GOOD Drakenstein Municipality Councillor & Mayoral Candidate
11 September 2026
The GOOD Party in Drakenstein is demanding immediate action from the DA-led administration to unlock the electrification of Bakka Informal Settlement, where approximately 45 families continue to live without access to electricity despite a solution having been identified months ago.
This is not a new problem; GOOD has been driving this issue for some time now and approximately a year ago, GOOD stood with the residents of Bakka and led a community petition calling for the settlement to be electrified. More than 200 signatures were collected, and the petition was handed over to Executive Mayor Cllr. Stephen Korabie.
After the petition was received GOOD repeatedly engaged with the municipality, met with officials and Members of the Mayoral Committee, and pushed the administration to find a lawful and practical solution to the obstacles preventing electrification and it is because of this pressure that a progressive decision was achieved.
Through GOOD’s intervention and continued engagement, the Bakka matter was brought directly to the attention of the landowner. The municipality subsequently met with the landowner and an agreement was reached for the land to be sold to the municipality.
However, through all this, the families of Bakka still remain robbed of their basic human rights, as the municipality is dragging its feet by submitting a Land Acquisition Application to the WC Provincial Government for the administration to acquire the land. Even before all these hurdles, GOOD had to wait eight months for the MMC’s responsible to take ownership of the petition and draft a response to our request.
Not only is this a complete failure by a municipality claiming to be a responsible government, but it also indicates that the Democratic Alliance has no political will to meet the basic needs of the poor.
To further emphasise the urgency in this matter GOOD has, in June 2026, tabled a Motion of Exigency before the Drakenstein council, seeking to force urgent action on the Land Acquisition Application. What was shocking at the time is that the ANC ward councillor blocked our request and stated that the matter does not fall within the ambit of being urgent and the motion therefore failed in council.
A community that has been waiting for electricity for more than 36 years is blocked by their own ward councillor and their plight is not supported by the DA-led administration.
Residents living in informal settlements are not second-class citizens. Poor people do not have fewer rights because they live on land that government has not yet acquired. But somehow their plight does not meet the bureaucratic standard of what is urgent and what is not. This is a testament to exactly what the DA-led administration thinks of poor people in Drakenstein.
GOOD has championed this cause from the beginning, and we will not stop fighting for the residents of Bakka to get electricity; especially now that the landowner is willing to sell the land and give these people their dignity back.
What is evident here is the severe lack of political will from this administration to recognise that people, no matter their economic background, deserve the same level of service delivery as everyone else.
Media Enquiries: media@forgood.org.za