The green pedigree of Cape Town’s only Jewish candidate

For Danielle Klaff, protecting Cape Town’s environment and improving food security aren’t new political promises. They’ve shaped decades of community work, from environmental education to vegetable gardens in vulnerable communities. 

Now, the environmentalist and DA member hopes to bring that experience into local government. Klaff is standing on the party’s proportional representation (PR) list for the upcoming municipal elections and is the only Jewish candidate in the Cape Town metro. 

If elected, she wants to focus on water security, food security, and protecting green spaces. She believes her experience working directly with communities could help the city address challenges affecting residents across Cape Town. 

“I definitely go for integrity, accountability, and transparency,” she says. “I stand up for what’s right. I’m always standing up for the underdog or the animals.” 

Klaff’s environmental convictions began long before her political career. Born in Cape Town, she grew up in Hyde Park, Johannesburg, before studying art at the Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town. 

Her interest in sustainable living took shape during a gap year in Europe in 1989. While visiting an organic farm in Bordeaux, France, she encountered a different approach to food production and energy. The farm used renewable energy, composting toilets, and organic vegetable cultivation. The experience changed her understanding of how people could live. “That was my ‘aha’ moment,” she says. “They just woke me up. It was brilliant.” 

She returned to South Africa during the final years of apartheid and helped establish Kagenna, a green magazine, before moving to the Garden Route in 1991. 

There, she spent a decade living in a community, teaching art and gardening. However, she eventually felt that living sustainably in an isolated setting wasn’t enough. “I realised by the end of that that I wasn’t really making a difference,” she says. “It was so easy to live out in the bush.” 

In 2006, she moved back to Cape Town and settled in Hout Bay. She became involved in community development and joined Envirochild, an environmental education nongovernmental organisation (NGO) where she now serves as chairperson. 

Her work included establishing environmental clubs at local schools and organising the Hout Bay Green Fair. The event ran for about a decade, from 2009, and became a zero-waste event powered by renewable energy. 

Klaff also helped introduce environmentally friendly cutlery and crockery. The initiative received several awards before the COVID-19 pandemic brought it to a halt. 

Her community work extended beyond environmental education. During the pandemic, she raised a large amount of money from friends living abroad to support vulnerable people in Hout Bay. She worked with community organisations to help distribute food. The experience reinforced her belief that food security requires sustainable, long-term solutions. 

Rather than simply providing meals, Klaff began establishing vegetable gardens in township communities. She believes these projects can help people develop greater food independence. “I don’t want to feed people, give them veggies,” she says. “I want to give the people a fishing rod, so to speak.” 

She received a Civic Honours Award from the City of Cape Town in 2021 for her community work. She subsequently established Yummi Organics, a business supplying organic produce sourced from farms in Hout Bay and Philippi. 

Klaff’s environmental work eventually led her into party politics. She stood for the Green Party in the 2019 elections but decided it wasn’t the right vehicle for her ambitions. She joined the DA in 2020 after a local councillor encouraged her to become involved. She says the party offered a way to pursue environmental change through municipal structures. 

Klaff has since worked within the party and served as a secretary and campaign manager. In addition, she has served two terms as the environmental representative on the ward committee for Hout Bay. In this position she represented all the environmental NGOs in Hout Bay and liaised with the City of Cape Town. Klaff recently received an Appreciation Award for this work. 

She is currently campaigning in Sea Point and Camps Bay alongside Nicola Jowell. 

Errol Anstey, the DA’s city councillor, says Klaff comes from a family with a long history of political involvement. Her father, David Woolf, chaired the Progressive Federal Party, Democratic Party, and DA Sandton branch over 25 years. 

Anstey told the SA Jewish Report that Klaff’s experience in food sustainability would be an asset to the council if she is elected. “I think she will be a very good proportional councillor if she’s successful.” 

Michael Bagraim, a DA parliamentarian, also praised Klaff’s commitment to public service. He says she had devoted much of the year to campaigning and keeping service delivery central to her work. “She has demonstrated stamina and compassion,” Bagraim says. 

He adds that Jewish representatives have struggled to persuade other members of the community to stand for city council. Klaff’s candidacy followed a rigorous party selection process. Bagraim believes her appointment would continue a long history of Jewish involvement in Cape Town’s public life. 

The PR system allows political parties to gain council seats according to their share of the vote. Unlike ward councillors, who represent specific geographical wards, PR councillors are selected from party lists. 

Klaff hopes to use her experience to contribute to the city’s water and food security work. She has attended meetings on water resilience and wants to help address infrastructure challenges. 

She is particularly concerned about food insecurity among vulnerable communities, and proposes establishing township vegetable gardens and supporting early childhood development centres with access to nutritious produce. 

She also wants the city to protect green spaces and trees as Cape Town grows. Her environmental interests include reducing pesticide use and encouraging sustainable approaches to managing public spaces. 

Klaff acknowledges that residents face a range of concerns beyond environmental protection. During the election campaign, she says residents had raised issues including municipal rates, water outages, traffic congestion, and the management of baboons. 

She believes communication between residents and the council is important. Explaining the reasons behind infrastructure projects, she says, can help residents understand why temporary disruptions occur. 

Her political ambitions are also shaped by her Jewish identity. Klaff says she believes in freedom of religion and the right of people to practise their faith without harming others. She supports peaceful dialogue and a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which she described as consistent with the DA’s position. 

She has also experienced hesitation about publicly identifying herself as Jewish amid hostility surrounding the conflict. Abusive interactions on social media have made her more cautious about putting herself forward. 

However, she remains willing to represent Jewish concerns if elected. She says members of her community have encouraged her to act as a liaison between Jewish residents and the city. 

Klaff describes herself as someone who wants to translate her convictions into practical action. She believes her environmental work, community relationships, and political experience have prepared her for a role in local government. 

“I walk my talk,” she says. “For me, it’s also very important not just to say it, but to take it and put it into action in your life.”