CAPE TOWN, WESTERN CAPE — Build One South Africa (BOSA) has officially elevated its national spokesperson, Roger Solomons, stepping him into the spotlight as the party’s Cape Town mayoral candidate. Announced by party leader Mmusi Maimane at the Iziko Museum, the designation marks BOSA’s maiden contest for local government in the metro and sets up a direct challenge to the Democratic Alliance’s entrenched leadership ahead of the November 4 elections.
Solomons, who currently serves as BOSA’s Head of Mobilisation, pitched his candidacy not as a rescue mission for a broken municipality, but as a necessary intervention for an “unfinished” city. While acknowledging the DA’s track record of administrative competence and relative stability over the past two decades, Solomons argued that basic governance is merely a foundation. “Competence alone does not create justice, and stability alone does not create inclusion,” he noted, urging a deliberate pivot toward shared progress where growth and safety are experienced across all communities.
Highlighting the stark spatial divides of the Mother City, Solomons pointed out that affluent enclaves like Bishop’s Court and Constantia exist in the same municipality as working-class areas like Bishop Lavis, Delft, and Mitchell’s Plain, yet offer vastly different lived experiences. He framed the upcoming electoral battle around the pressing issue of affordability. Describing a severe cost-of-living crisis, he detailed the painful monthly calculations forced upon local parents who must choose between paying for healthcare, transport, housing bonds, or schooling.
To combat this financial pressure, Solomons outlined a targeted approach to the city’s housing and property market. He criticized the trend of millionaires purchasing prime real estate only to convert them into short-term tourist rentals like Airbnb, which drives up local rents. His proposed solution involves strict monitoring to ensure that young graduates and growing families can afford to live close to their places of work.
Facing scrutiny over his capacity to manage a massive metropolitan municipality with a R60 billion annual budget and 30,000 employees—without having previously held elected office or directly run a municipal department—Solomons leaned heavily on his extensive behind-the-scenes experience. He revealed that he spent nearly a decade within the DA’s structures, serving as a ward-level chairperson, a political assistant to the provincial leader, and a stakeholder manager for the executive mayor of Cape Town.
“I have spent over a decade in the engine room of government,” Solomons defended, emphasizing his intimate knowledge of budgets, compliance, and bureaucratic mechanics across all 116 wards of the city. He argued that this deep systemic understanding, combined with his personal journey as a pastor’s kid, the first head boy of color at his schools, and the first in his family to complete university, uniquely qualifies him to tell residents what they need to hear. “Systems shape outcomes more than intentions do,” he asserted.
The race for the Cape Town municipal seat is highly fragmented, with Solomons set to face a crowded field including the DA’s Geordin Hill-Lewis, ActionSA’s Darlene James, and candidates from the Good, the Patriotic Alliance, the ANC, and the NCC. When pressed on his realistic path to the mayoral chair versus settling for a coalition seat, Solomons maintained a pragmatic yet firm stance on post-election alliances.
While BOSA remains open to working with other parties, Solomons insisted that any coalition must be a “collision with a plan.” He dismissed traditional political horse-trading over portfolios, stating that potential partners must first agree on a concrete, actionable blueprint to make the city safer, more inclusive, and fundamentally affordable for all its residents before discussing who gets what.