Build One South Africa (BOSA), founded in 2022 and led by Mmusi Maimane, is a centrist party promoting a capable, merit-based state, market-friendly reform and national unity. It emphasises ending cadre deployment, liberalising energy, professionalising and decentralising policing, and private-sector-led job creation.
A match on these questions is not agreement with a party's whole programme. Here are other policies we did not ask you about.
Other recorded policies from Build One South Africa
Year-long voluntary civilian service for school-leavers, small allowance paid.
Independent education ombud proposed to lift outcomes, curb corruption.
Selected policies, not a full manifesto or ballot list. National policies are context, not powers a council can exercise on its own. Local plans can also need other agencies. Read dates and sources before deciding.
Merit-based municipal appointments and public tender and budget dashboards.
static.pmg.org.zaMaintain accurate indigent registers and deliver free-basic-service entitlements.
static.pmg.org.zaAudit municipal land and buildings within 90 days for housing and productive use.
static.pmg.org.zaSimplify small-business licensing and establish local incubation funds.
static.pmg.org.zaCreate municipal safety coordination centres and recruit 1,000 Ekurhuleni metro officers.
static.pmg.org.zaAssign manifesto commitments to named office-holders with timelines and funding.
Top municipal jobs, like the city manager and the head of finance, should be filled by an independent panel. Political parties should have no say in who gets them.
"2026 manifesto requires hiring on experience and competence, not patronage. Supports merit; an independent appointment panel excluding all political-party involvement is not specified."
The law should stop the municipality from raising rates and service charges (water, electricity, refuse) by more than inflation each year.
Note: New 2026 local-government manifesto opened at PMG and launch confirmed by the party's 5 September statement. Targets 24 municipalities, with 794 candidates; the 26 August preview's 4 September date is superseded by actual launch coverage. Q10 replaces an earlier absence-based negative inference with explicit documentation requirements for business activity. Q11 is mixed: strict legality for foreign businesses, simpler informal registration, and impounding only for serious offences. Q19 favours South African businesses without banning lawful foreign businesses. Q8 and Q17 are cleared because merit rhetoric and private partnerships do not establish race-neutral procurement or opposition to insourcing. The 2025 Growth Charter refreshes energy and PPP evidence. Q2, Q6 and Q13 are calibrated to the actual scope, not assumed independent panels or expropriation. The fetched municipal PDF reaches the corruption chapter but is truncated at the tool's 48,000-character cap; no unseen later text was scored.
Parties and readers can challenge any score with a source. A person reviews every submission; accepted changes appear in the public changelog with the date and source.
Party positions were checked in September 2026 against manifestos, party statements and news reports. Spotted a mistake? Tell us. Changelog →
Answer the same statements and see your match with BOSA, and with every other party.
Start the quizPoor households should get more free water and electricity, even if better-off households pay more to cover it.
"Promises accurate indigent registers and delivery of existing free water, electricity and refuse entitlements; larger allocations or cross-subsidising higher tariffs are not specified."
The municipality should cut off water and electricity to anyone who does not pay their bill, including businesses and government departments.
"Commits to consistent credit control while opposing arbitrary household water cuts and protecting essential institutions; no blanket cutoff rule for every unpaid bill."
Where the municipality is failing at electricity, water or rubbish removal, it should pay private companies to run those services.
"Growth Charter explicitly promotes public-private partnerships in energy and water infrastructure; municipal takeover contracts are not specified, warranting partial rather than full agreement."
The municipality should cancel what poor households still owe on old water and electricity bills.
Every home should be put on prepaid electricity and water meters, including homes that now pay a monthly bill.
The municipality should buy electricity from private producers and from homes with solar panels, instead of only from Eskom.
"Would liberalise energy so businesses and communities can generate and sell electricity, incentivise rooftop solar and reduce reliance on Eskom."
When the municipality hands out contracts, it should stop giving black-owned businesses preference and choose only on price and ability to do the job.
"Manifesto: 'end the tenderpreneurship culture and cadre deployment freeing up opportunities for entrepreneurs to compete fairly and on merit', implies merit-based (not race-based) contracting, though race-neutrality is not stated explicitly."
Security guards, cleaners and other contract workers should become permanent municipal employees, even if that costs more than using private companies.
"Inference: manifesto leans on private delivery and partnerships (e.g. Private security) and free-market efficiency, with no commitment to insource contract workers as permanent municipal staff (security/services passage beyond the fetched 48k-char extent)."
Before giving anyone a house, a trading permit or a business licence, the municipality should check that they are in the country legally.
"Replacing the earlier negative inference, the municipal manifesto requires anyone operating a business to be fully documented and legally registered, with strict enforcement."
Only spaza shops and street traders with a licence should be allowed to trade. Those without one should be shut down.
"Combines zero tolerance for unlawful foreign business activity with simpler informal registration and impounding only for serious offences; not blanket closure for missing licences."
Only South African citizens and permanent residents should be allowed to own or run spaza shops and street stalls.
"South African-owned businesses receive priority trading opportunities, while lawful foreign-owned businesses remain permitted; preference, not a citizens-and-permanent-residents-only ownership rule."
When people occupy land or buildings illegally, they should be removed straight away, even if they have nowhere else to go.
The municipality should take over hijacked and abandoned buildings in the city centre and turn them into affordable housing.
"Replaces an absence-based negative inference: supports repurposing underused public buildings for affordable housing, but does not explicitly expropriate privately owned hijacked buildings."
Metro police should get more officers and the power to investigate crimes, not only handle traffic and by-laws.
"Commits to 1,000 new Ekurhuleni metro officers and strengthened municipal policing; does not explicitly give metro police criminal-investigation powers."
The municipality should limit the hours taverns and bottle stores may sell alcohol, and close those next to schools and homes.
Renaming streets and public places after people from all of South Africa's history should carry on, even when it costs money and some residents object.