The best defiance campaign against ANC race quotas, is to register to vote DA

26 July 2023

Goeiemôre, good morning, molweni,

It’s great to see so many democrats out on the streets of the Mother City today.

Dis te danke aan julle as DA ondersteuners en aktiviste, dat hierdie die bes-regeerde stad en provinsie in die hele Suid-Afrika is!

Ladies and gentleman, we know that South Africa is in the midst of the world’s biggest unemployment crisis.

Seven out of ten young people in this country – many of them graduates – cannot find work.

The national expanded unemployment rate is over 40 percent.

There are now more South Africans who are forced to survive on meager grants of R350 per month, than there are people who work and earn a decent salary.

On top of this jobs crisis, South Africans are facing the biggest cost of living crisis in a generation.

Let me ask you.

How many people here today are paying more to feed their families now than two years ago?

How many people here are paying more to get to work or school than two years ago?

How many people here feel poorer than they did two years ago?

And what is the ANC national government’s response to the unemployment and food crisis that threatens the survival of millions of South Africans?

They introduce a Race Quotas Act that could cost up to 600 000 jobs and kill any hopes of increased investment or economic growth.

They introduce race quotas for access to water that will destroy the farms and the livelihoods of the farmers and farm workers who feed all of us.

How many of you know Pick n Pay?

Well, allow me to read to you the warning issued last week from the chairman of Pick n Pay, Gareth Ackerman, about these race quotas.

Here is what he had to say.

The Race Quota Act, and I quote, “would have the effect of making large numbers of qualified people unemployed and substituting them with unqualified people. It is very probably unconstitutional, and could ruin many productive companies and foreign investments on which the economy depends.”

About the race quotas that will prevent farmers from obtaining water licenses to grow the food we all need to survive, Ackerman has this to say:

“The new provision for race-based water rights has huge potential to impact food security. This could ruin or close many of our farms and undermine the value of all existing farms, thus also creating a banking crisis.”

Democrats,

The Race Quota Act will completely ban the employment of coloured and Indian South Africans in certain provinces and sectors.

It says, in black and white, that the quota for the employment of coloured people in the agricultural sector in Limpopo and Mpumalanga is 0.0 percent.

What about here in the Western Cape?

According to research done by Solidarity, the ANC’s race quotas will force one out of every three coloured people working in skilled occupations in this province to lose their jobs.

One out of three.

Ons almal onthou hoe die ANC ‘n paar jaar gelede gesê het bruin mense is “over-represented” in die Wes-Kaap.

Hier sien ons nou die gevolge van die ANC se rassisme.

But let’s be clear: this law will hurt every single South African family, no matter their race and no matter where they live.

In Gauteng, approximately 85 000 coloured workers, 50 000 Indian workers and 220 000 white workers will have to be removed to meet the ANC’s quotas.

The number of coloured people employed in Gauteng will have to be reduced by an incredible 73 percent to meet the quotas.

Now, many of you know that I grew up in the beautiful province of KwaZulu-Natal.

Daar het ons nou wel nie ‘n Tafelberg nie, maar ons het darem die Drakensberge!

I was recently back in KZN, where I visited the vibrant market in Chatsworth in a part of the province that is home to nearly one million South Africans of Indian descent.

The market is filled with the most wonderful family-run shops, restaurants and stalls, owned and operated by the local Indian community.

The ANC’s race quotas will destroy that market and the community it sustains.

Even though more than 60 percent of the people who live in Chatsworth are Indian, the quotas say that less than 2 percent of people working in the retail sector in KZN are allowed to be of Indian background.

And before the ANC comes with the lie that these quotas will benefit black people, let’s look at some examples of how it will actually affect black people.In the Northern Cape, the quota for black women in senior management in the real estate sector is 14.7 percent.

This means that a real estate company in Kimberley that is 100 percent black and female owned will be breaking the ANC’s Race Law.

Here in the Western Cape, only 18.6 percent of skilled health workers, like nurses, are allowed to be black women.

Just imagine, a clinic in Khayelitsha where 2 out of ten nurses are black will be breaking the law!

And make no mistake about it. The punishment for breaking the ANC’s race laws, are severe.

A company with more than 50 employees that fails to adhere to the race quotas, will be fined up to 10 percent of its annual turnover and will be cut off from doing any business with the state.

Democrats,

Black, white, Indian and coloured South Africans will all suffer enormously if we allow these race laws to stand.

But there is one group that will indeed benefit.

It is not the poor.

It is not skilled workers who are locked out of opportunities.

It is not our young people who spend a fortune to study, only to end up unemployed.

These laws are designed to benefit one group, and one group only: ANC cadres.

We already know that the ANC has used cadre deployment to loot, to collapse service delivery, and to reserve jobs in the public sector for their friends and family.

Now, the Race Quota Act will give the ANC enormous power over employment at private companies.

This Act is not about empowerment or equality.

It is about centralising the ultimate power in the ANC.

The power to decide who should be employed, and who should starve.

Hierdie wet se doel is om aan die ANC die mag te gee om vir besighede voor te sê wie ‘n werk mag hê, en wie moet honger ly.

We’ve already seen how organised Mafias have taken over economic sectors like the construction industry.

Mark my words: if these race quotas are implemented, you will soon see Mafias going to private businesses and telling them which cadres to employ, while honest and hard-working South Africans of all backgrounds are pushed even deeper into suffering.

My fellow South Africans,

success is zero': D ANC's bid to appeal cadre deployment ruling

We are here today to send a clear message.

That we reject these ANC race quotas with everything we have.

Today, I repeat my call that it is time for a new defiance campaign against these race laws.

The ANC is extending the same cadre deployment that has destroyed the state, and the same economic suffering, the same racist policies, the same job reservation, and the same group areas that we last saw before 1994.

That is why the DA has already gone to court to declare the Race Quotas Act unconstitutional.

But for guidance on what else we need to do, we should remind ourselves of a quote attributed to none other than Nelson Mandela.

In 1993, he said that if the ANC government ever does to you what the Apartheid government did, then you must do to the ANC what you did to the Apartheid government.

I say to you: with these race laws, the moment Mandela warned us about, has arrived!

It is time to defy the ANC’s race laws just like the defiance campaign undermined racist laws before.

Even more importantly, it is time to remove the ANC from government just like its predecessor was removed.

Now is the time for a new movement, like the old UDF, that includes political parties, civil society organisations, churches, sports clubs and businesses to rise up as one and sweep the ANC out of power.

The Moonshot Pact is this movement we have been waiting for.

The Moonshot Pact is the new UDF.

While the ANC divides us, the DA is working to form a Pact that unites us all as one.

Die doel van die Moonshot-Pakt is om opposisiepartye en die burgerlike samelewing te verenig teen die ANC en hul meelopers in partye soos die PA en GOOD, wat kiesers uitverkoop het aan die ANC.

Let’s be clear about one thing: next year, we must remove a rotten national government from power and elect a new DA national government.

And the DA’s Moonshot mission to remove the ANC from power starts right here in the Western Cape, where I call on you to go out in your numbers to register to vote DA.

In 2024, we need to send a clear message that we will not tolerate ANC discrimination and race quotas in this province!

The best way to send that message is to ensure that the DA wins its biggest ever majority here in the Western Cape.

Winning the Western Cape with an increased DA majority holds the key to launching our national Moonshot to rescue South Africa from the ANC’s destructive and racist policies.

I ask each and every one of you to join in this mission to rescue South Africa.

If every DA supporter helps their family and friends to visit check.da.org.za, we can get millions more people registered.

And then, when Election Day arrives next year, we must go out in our masses to vote DA.

Daarmee sal ons eens en vir altyd ‘n baie duidelike boodskap stuur.

Raskwota’s se moer!

Ons is almal Suid-Afrikaners en ons almal verdien om gelyk behandel te word!

It is our moral duty to defy these unjust race laws.

The single most powerful thing each of us can do for this defiance campaign, is to go out and register to vote DA.

We are all South Africans, united in our diversity – and we will not allow the ANC to divide us.

Let us all go out and register today to defy ANC race laws and rescue South Africa.

Thank you.

Issued by John Steenhuisen, Leader of the Democratic Alliance, 26 July 2023