Straight Talk
16 February 2024
The DA has clocked up two huge victories for South Africa this week. While the President delivers words – mostly empty promises and populist posturing – the DA has achieved real progress in rescuing South Africa from cadre deployment and loadshedding.
On Monday, the Constitutional Court ruled in favour of the DA in our case to compel the ANC to hand over its complete cadre deployment records from 2013 to 2018, the peak state capture period when Cyril Ramaphosa chaired the cadre deployment committee.
These records will reveal exactly how the ANC laid the foundation for state capture by interfering in public appointment processes, to block skilled applicants in favour of its chosen cadres. By forcing the ANC to reveal these records, the DA has dealt a serious blow to ANC state capture and corruption while scoring a decisive win for the democratic principle of transparency.
This is also a major victory in the battle to build a capable state. Because, by enabling the ANC to dish out state jobs in return for political loyalty rather than on the basis of merit and skill, cadre deployment is also the root cause of the collapse of state capacity. It is destroying the ability of the state to deliver services, which of course hurts the poor disproportionately, because the poor are most reliant on the state.
In uprooting cadre deployment, the DA is tackling the key cause of loadshedding, water-shedding, infrastructure collapse and economic decline all at once. At the same time, we’re also offering realistic, workable solutions to these problems. Please tune into the DA’s manifesto launch this weekend to hear more about these.
But we’re not only talking about solutions, we’re also actively implementing them every day where we govern, which brings me to the DA’s second great victory for SA this week. On Monday, DA-run Cape Town officially launched its Cash for Power programme, allowing households to earn cash for excess power generated by their solar PV systems.
This is part of Cape Town’s broader Energy Strategy that will protect residents from up to six stages of loadshedding by 2026 and pave the way for the rest of South Africa to follow. The DA is fighting on every front to reverse South Africa’s decline and build a capable state that can deliver to all. Please join us in rescuing South Africa from cadre deployment and loadshedding by registering and voting DA in the 2024 national and provincial elections.
Yours sincerely
John Steenhuisen
