Rabia Mayet | rabiamayet@radioislam.co.za

12 February 2026

2-minute read

With 345 murders in the Western Cape this January, DA Premier Allen Winde states that his expectations from SONA this year are levelled towards crime. The party has been calling for a long time for reforms on policing.

Another key factor is the wall to be built to ensure protection of communities that is pending in Cape Town. Winde mentions that “crime across the board affects people and these barriers are meant to stop people” from committing criminal acts.

Citing the mismanagement of water and that “infrastructure has been South Africa’s Achilles Heel,” it is doubtful that the country will enter the era of economic growth which it has been poised for.

Reforms to strengthen municipalities across the Western Cape include getting the job done through “coalition reform” at both national and local government level. “If the citizens can’t agree that you should have one party running that, then all parties should run that municipality” to cut out the squabbles between parties, he reiterates.

Winde further states that were the GNU not to exist, there would be erratic fluctuations in the Rand/Dollar rate, the stability of the last two years would fall away, and the inflation rate would start to rise again. Despite the gradual changes, Windee says that there is a positive outlook to the future.

Local elections are looming, the public is growing wary, and mistrust for the DA is in the air after John Steenhuisen’s credit card shenanigans, but Winde urges citizens to “look at the track record of DA governance” in the Western Province that includes clean audits, economic growth and low unemployment rates.

Listen to the full interview with Ml Habib Bobat and Allen Winde here.