YumnaAlexander

Today, I stand before you not simply as the President of the Hopeful Leaders Democrats, but as a woman who has made the decision to offer herself for service as Mayor of the City of Cape Town.

I know that is a big statement. I also know that many South Africans are tired of big statements. We have heard promises before. So I am not asking you to judge me only by what I say today. Judge me by what I did before I ever asked you for a vote.

Before politics, there was Hopeful Leaders. Before there was a political party, there were classrooms and night schools where young and old were given another opportunity to learn. There were teachers who gave their time, community programmes, sporting initiatives, families being assisted and ordinary people being reminded that their circumstances did not have to determine their future.

We served when there were no campaign posters, no elections to contest, no positions to win and no votes to ask for. That experience taught me something important: our communities are not without potential — they are too often without opportunity.

Cape Town is a beautiful city, but it is also a deeply unequal city. There are communities where government works well, and we should acknowledge what works. But there are also communities where broken infrastructure, overcrowding, unemployment, unsafe public spaces, crime and long waits for basic services have become normal. They are not normal.

Leadership cannot only be measured by how well the best-performing parts of our city are doing. It must also be measured by what is happening to the people who have waited the longest. So one question will remain at the heart of my campaign: Are the communities with the greatest needs receiving an equitable share of investment, opportunity and service delivery?

I am not entering this race because I believe one woman can fix Cape Town. I am entering because I believe Cape Town can be transformed when its people are no longer spectators in their own governance. Residents should not only matter when politicians need votes. Communities must have a voice when budgets are decided, priorities are set and decisions are made about their neighbourhoods.

Hopeful Leaders Democrats is not Yumna Alexander's party. I may have founded this movement, but I do not own it. This is your party. It belongs to the teacher, the mother, the pensioner, the entrepreneur, the young person and every ordinary resident who has ever looked at what is happening around them and thought: surely, we can do better than this.

I will not promise perfection. Question me. Challenge me. Hold me accountable. The standard we demand from today's leaders must become the standard we are willing to accept for ourselves.

If you have lost faith in South African politics, I understand. But giving up on politics does not make the decisions disappear. Someone will still decide how our money is spent, which communities receive investment and which communities continue waiting. Perhaps the answer is not to stop believing in politics, but to start giving the right people the opportunity to represent us.

I am Yumna Alexander — a teacher, a community servant, the President of the Hopeful Leaders Democrats, and today I humbly offer myself as a candidate to become the next Mayor of the City of Cape Town.

Not because I believe change starts with me, but because everything I have learnt through years of serving communities has taught me the opposite: change starts with ordinary people deciding that enough is enough.

If not you, who?
If not now, when?

IT ALL STARTS WITH YOU.