The DA is marching for jobs

27 January 2016

Note to Editors: The following speech was delivered today by the Leader of the Democratic Alliance, Mmusi Maimane MP, during the DA’s march for jobs in the City of Johannesburg.

Bagaetsho, Dumelang, Goeie môre, Good morning.

My fellow South Africans, 

We march today for jobs. We march for the freedom that having work brings.

It has been said that “a hungry man cannot be free”. This is the South Africa of today. 

We are here today because we believe that the hope for our nation, that the only way out of poverty, is always through a job.

In the past, the DA has often marched against things. But today is different. As I said last week, the DA is changing! Thousands of us have come here today to march for something. For jobs. For change. 

We want to make job creation a new national cause - something that will unite the whole country in a massive effort to secure our futures. 

Our country once had a generation of leaders – people from all walks of life – who fought against Apartheid. It was a cause that united them, and together they achieved the freedom to vote.

Today, a new generation of South Africans must continue this fight for freedom. We must unite in tackling the next chapter as we fight for the opportunity to work.

Creating jobs must be our next national cause – because our entire country’s future is at risk. We cannot build a prosperous future for South Africa when 8.4 million South Africans are excluded and have no hope, no sense of belonging.

I am reminded today of the famous march on Washington in 1963, where one of my heroes, Martin Luther King, made his most famous “I Have a Dream” speech. That march was a march for jobs, just like this one today. It was called the ‘“march for jobs and freedom”. 

We are not as numerous, nor as beautifully eloquent here today. 

But our resolve is as strong. 

We want to unite all South Africans behind the national cause of job creation.

Friends, life is getting tougher for most South Africans. 

Everyone is paying more for food, everyone is paying more for transport. Throughout the country, people have been telling me that it is getting more difficult to find work, even piece work. Even those with jobs feel unsure about their future, and they worry for their families. 

South Africa can do better than this. 

We are angry that so many of our people are unemployed, when we know they don’t have to be. 

That is why we launched this billboard twenty days ago. Right at the top you could see a rolling ticker, showing the number of South Africans who have joined the ranks of the jobless since Jacob Zuma became President. 

On 7 January, that ticker stood at 1.84 million people. In the past 20 days, more than 15 000 South Africans have been added to this number – more than 770 every day.

But look what the ANC has done. 

Do you think they got angry about unemployment?

Do you think they got angry that their President is letting 770 more people join the unemployed every single day?

No. They got angry at our billboard. They called it racist, and they vandalised it. 

You see, the ANC has forgotten the real-life struggles of South Africans who have no work. 

In this campaign we have heard those stories. Thousands of them - thousands of people looking for hope. 

All 8.4 million unemployed South Africans have their own unique stories. Every one of them is someone’s husband or wife, someone’s father or mother, someone’s son or daughter, each with their own heart-breaking story.

It is only when we see them as individuals – as humans like us, but with their dreams shattered – that we will truly understand what it means to be shut out of the economy. To be an economic outsider.

And so the DA has started to collect these stories. We have started asking unemployed South Africans to share with us their stories – where they are from, how being unemployed has affected them and how a job would change their lives.

They deserve to be heard. And if the ANC government won’t listen to them, then we will be their voice. 

And we will carry on telling their stories until enough people realise that the only government that will and can help them is a DA government.

I urge you to go to the DA website, where we post these stories as they come in. Understand what it really means to live from day to day without work and without hope in South Africa. Learn about the helplessness of not being able to look after your own children, or having to leave your family in search of a source of income.

Read about Cherise, who feels that her children deserve a better mother because she cannot provide for them.

Read about Thabang, who fears the day the debt collectors come for his outstanding student loan payments.

Read about Nomthandazo, who desperately wants to build a solid house for her elderly mother.

This is what unemployment looks and sounds like. They are real people facing real hardships.

But instead of fighting for those people, the ANC is fighting to protect President Zuma. And President Zuma is fighting to protect himself, and his close network of insiders. 

Unemployed South Africans must know this: President Zuma and the ANC have long forgotten you. It is only the DA that is here fighting for you. 

The DA is the one working to bring about the kind of change we need - change that will grow the economy and create jobs. 

There is always hope. The best hope for a growing economy that creates the millions of jobs we need, is a DA government - at city level, at provincial level, and at national level. 

Our country is changing, friends. We can all feel it.

Some people are scared of it. I am not, I am excited.

Last week, I spoke about how the DA is changing too. We are already the most diverse political party in South Africa’s history, but last week I outlined how I am going to make sure we speed up our party’s commitment to diversity.

The DA is serious about real change, in the DA, and in South Africa. 

At a time when our country needs strong leadership and direction, Jacob Zuma’s ANC has abandoned us. They have left the poor, the unemployed and the vulnerable to scratch out a desperate living while they steal more through big tenders, kickbacks and jobs-for pals.

The ANC government under Jacob Zuma believes in protecting a small circle of connected people while leaving millions outside this circle to fend for themselves. 

If you are in the circle – if you have connections, wealth or power – you are “known”. You are protected and looked after.

But if you’re not in this circle, you simply can’t count on the government for protection. You are unknown to them. You are an economic outsider.

We see Zuma’s ANC protect his friends, the Guptas, but not ordinary South Africans.

We see Zuma’s ANC protect the SADTU bosses at the expense of millions of school learners.

We see Zuma’s ANC protect the working, but not the unemployed.

We see those with connections to ANC councillors getting jobs and tenders while the rest of you get nothing.

We see those with money getting a world-class education, while poor children don’t.

We see government’s version of BEE re-empowering the same connected individuals over and over again, while ordinary South Africans remain left out in the cold.

Everywhere I go in South Africa, people tell me that they can only get an EPWP job if they know the right people, or if the local ANC councillor is their friend. 

This is corruption, and it is destroying job opportunities. 

Where the DA is in government, we allocate EPWP jobs fairly, with no corruption, and you don’t have to show us your membership card. Everyone gets access to opportunities. 

The fact is that the ANC’s corruption destroys jobs, and it cannot carry on. 

So, how do we change it? 

We start by voting out this government of insiders and voting in a new government who believes in delivering to all South Africans. That’s the first thing we do.

And once we have this new government, there are three things we must address to ensure that everyone is included in our economy. I call them the three E’s: Education, Equity and Employment.

Every single child in this country must have access to the standard of education that will put him or her on the path to success. That’s the first, and most important of the three E’s.

Why must good education only be for the rich? We must fight to give every child, in every home, rich or poor, a world-class education. 

Then people need Equity. Ownership. They need to own the house they live in, they need a stake in the business they work for, they need access to capital to start their own business.

And the last E is Employment. Because without a sustainable job, you will never be part of the economy. You will be left behind.

There are many other things we will need to fix once we take over the Union Buildings from the ANC, but if we prioritise these three E’s, we will create a South Africa where all can feel that they have hope for the future. 

But, it all begins with voting for a government that knows how to get the economy moving in the right direction. A government that prioritises changing the future of the unemployed and fights to create a fair and equal country.

Later this year, South Africans will have to opportunity to vote for such a government in their municipality or Metro. This is the first step towards putting a government in the Union Buildings that truly puts the people first.

If you give us your vote, I give you my word that we will work harder for you than any government you’ve had before. We will make it our priority to get your city, your province and this country working again.

When the voter registration weekend comes around, make sure you register for the change you want to see. 

Together, we can build a South Africa based on Freedom, Fairness and Opportunity for all its people. Together, you and I can make this country great again.

I thank you.

Issued by the DA, 27 January 2016