Zuma’s R4bn jet will sabotage job creation and service delivery

14 July 2016

Fellow Democrats,

Molweni,

We are less than three weeks away from South Africa’s most contested election, where the people of Nelson Mandela Bay and municipalities across the country will vote for Mayors and Councillors – representatives of the people. This election is not about the past, it is about the future. It is about what future you want for yourselves, for your children, and for their children. But the reality is that only the Democratic Alliance is capable of delivering change and a better, more prosperous South Africa. 

Only in the Democratic Alliance will you find people who care more about South Africa than they do about status, money and power. Only in the DA are there people who will create jobs, stop corruption and deliver better services. This is evident where we govern, and we want to govern here in NMB so that you can rest assured that your municipality is working for you.

The reality is that in order to bring change to the community of Zwide, we need your votes, and thereafter we will need money to effect that change.

Fellow Democrats, make no mistake, there is money available to ensure better service delivery and job creation. The ANC government receives hundreds of billions of rands in tax from the people every year.

But the people of South Africa are robbed by the ANC’s corruption at every level – from the ground all the way up to the Guptas. 

You see, we thought Nkandla was the worst it could get. It gets worse! The ANC has bigger plans to enrich themselves with the people’s money 

We have been told that the ANC and Jacob Zuma want to take R 4 billion rand of the people’s money to buy one jet for Jacob Zuma, at the expense of building better communities and creating jobs for all. 

Jacob Zuma doesn’t need a brand new luxury jet, he wants one! 

Jacob Zuma’s wants are more important to the ANC than South Africa’s needs. 

When the ANC and Jacob Zuma say they are buying a R4 billion jet, they are also saying that they are sacrificing your futures. When that jet is bought, the ANC, Jacob Zuma and Danny Jordaan are turning their backs on 600 000 EPWP jobs, which could unshackle entire communities from the chains of poverty and unemployment.

R4 billion is half the entire NSFAS budget. With R4 billion, the government could give a full NSFAS bursary to every single student at NMMU for two years.

Or it could support 80 000 new entrepreneurs with a R50 000 start-up grant each.

Or it could pay for 160 000 one-year internships for young South Africans.

But the ANC chooses greed over the peoples need. 

The ANC does not care about you!

The ANC, Jacob Zuma and Danny Jordaan only care about themselves. 

Fellow South Africans, people of Nelson Mandela Bay,

The DA cares too much about you to turn its back on you, we are in this together, because we cannot claim to honour Tata Madiba’s legacy when so many of our people are without work and are without hope. Your struggle to better your lives and your community is one that we are engaged in with you. We are standing by your side to ensure that the people of NMB no longer suffer.

How can one man named Jacob Zuma sleep at night, when you go to bed hungry? How can the ANC claim to be for the people, when they are clearly for one man who thinks that it is okay to buy a R4 billion jet with your money?

That is not the fair society that Tata Madiba spent 27 years in jail for.

How is it that that the municipality named after the world icon, Nelson Mandela, has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country of over 33%? This is a crisis, which only the DA can solve. Our Manifesto for Change places great emphasis on job creation, because while the struggle for democracy was won in 1994, we are now engaged in a struggle to build a vibrant and inclusive economy. And the truth is that the ANC is sabotaging all prospects of an economy that attracts investment, grows the economy and creates jobs.

So what is clear is that when we go cast our votes on Wednesday, 03 August we have two choices: DA or ANC; jobs or one jet; change or more of the same. The choice we need to make is obvious.

The choice we make on voting day is not just so that we can live a better life today, it so we start the process of rebuilding this community for generations to come. We are in this for the long run, we are committed to working with you because we afford to allow the ANC to undermine South Africa’s democracy.

Give us five years; that is all we are asking you for. We are not demanding that you elect us to govern “until Jesus returns”, because we will prove ourselves in one five-year term, and it is on that basis that you will again out you ‘X’ next to the DA.

Fellow South Africans,

I also want to touch on the situation happening in Zimbabwe. What is happening to our sisters and brothers in Zimbabwe is tragic, and it should serve as a lesson to the ANC. When people lose patience and democratic processes and the judiciary are undermined, the people will take to the streets to demand change. In South Africa, we will use democratic processes to change governments, but we must still remain vigilant on 3 August to ensure that the will of the people prevails.

We must guard against political interference at the SABC, and we must guard against political interference at the IEC.

Change will not just happen, we need to work for change, and that work starts with you waking up on 3 August and placing your trust in the DA, and encouraging friends and family to do the same.

On 3 August we are voting for three things:

To create jobs.

To stop corruption.

To deliver better services.

I thank you!

Ndiayabulela!

Issued by Mabine Seabe, Spokesperson to the DA Leader, 14 July 2016