Tomorrow is a better country

26 May 2024

Note to Editors: The following speech was delivered today by the Leader of the Democratic Alliance, John Steenhuisen, during the party's final campaign rally in Benoni, Ekurhuleni, Gauteng. 

My fellow South Africans,

What you see before you today, is the biggest, strongest, most diverse, and most determined Democratic Alliance our country has ever seen.

What you see before you are the people who make up the heart and soul of the only political party that moves our country forward wherever the DA governs.

What you see are the people who run the best municipalities and provincial government in the country.

What you see is the party that delivers thousands of new jobs wherever we govern.

We are able to deliver all of these things, because of the DA people who work across the length and breadth of this land to turn South Africa into the country of our dreams.

The people you see before you, stand on the shoulders of giants.

We were all painfully reminded of that this past week, when the DA family lost one of the greatest giants of them all.

Please join me now in a moment of silence, as we honour Mr James Selfe – a hero not only of the DA, but of South African democracy.

Thank you.

Democrats,

The 29th of May 2024 will go down in history as the most consequential day in South Africa since the birth of our democracy in 1994.

On Wednesday, the ANC will lose the outright majority is has abused for decades to subject the people of this country to unemployment, corruption and misrule.

On Wednesday, we close the ANC chapter of our history.

And a new chapter will begin.

This new chapter will be written by the people of South Africa.

The people will write this chapter by picking up a pen inside a voting booth, and using it to draw their three sacred crosses.

Remember this when you enter the voting booth over the coming days.

As you are about to vote, look at the pen in your hand and reflect on the fact that, with that pen, you will personally write the next chapter of our country’s history.

The choice you will make with that pen in your hand, is a serious decision.

Because this is a serious election.

As you are about to vote, think about your family.

Think about your future.

And use that pen to vote for a serious party, with a proven track record, that will work for you and with you, to turn South Africa’s next chapter into the best one yet.

That party, is the Democratic Alliance.

You see, unlike all other parties in this election, the DA doesn’t make promises about what we will do one day.

We show you the evidence of what we are already doing – today.

The DA did not appear out of nowhere to promise you the sun, the moon and sky.

We don’t wait for elections to try and manipulate you with desperate stunts like the NHI.

This scheme will not solve the ANC corruption and mismanagement that has destroyed public healthcare.

Instead, it will expropriate medical aid from the millions of South Africans who – despite the misrule of the ANC – have worked hard to make it into the middle class since 1994.

The NHI is an assault on the aspirations of the South African people by the ANC, which is playing political games with the lives and health of citizens.

Unlike the ANC, the DA doesn’t do populist political gimmicks.

Instead of expropriating medical aid funds, we have a rational and sustainable plan to achieve universal access to quality healthcare by making private medical aid affordable for more people, while rooting out corruption and mismanagement from public hospitals and clinics – just like we have already done in the Western Cape.

For, you see, the DA doesn’t need populist stunts because we do the hard work.

The DA worked yesterday to create a better country.

The DA is working today to create a better country.

And the DA will keep working tomorrow for a better country.

As we speak here today, regions under DA control create hundreds of thousands more jobs than any other part of the country.

Today, DA governments are busy managing public finances responsibly with zero tolerance for corruption.

Today, the DA is making communities safer where we govern, through initiatives like the R1.2 billion LEAP programme that has already taken over 27 000 criminals off the streets in the Western Cape.

Today, DA governments already run the best public schools, hospitals and clinics you will find anywhere in this country.

And today, as we speak, DA governments are busy enhancing the dignity of our poorest citizens by delivering excellent public education and healthcare, while DA-led Cape Town is investing more in poor communities than ANC-led Johannesburg and eThekwini combined.

Unlike other parties, the DA doesn’t offer you empty promises.

We show you concrete facts.

And the facts are undeniable.

If you want a government that creates two million new jobs and that outlaws cadre deployment to ensure fair access to jobs for all South Africans.

If you want to halve the rate of violent crime, including murder, attempted murder and gender-based violence.

If you want clean, accountable government with zero tolerance for corruption.

If you want an end to loadshedding and water cuts.

If you want to fix public schools, so that we can triple the number of grade four learners who can read for meaning, and provide our children with a better future.

And if you want to expand access to private medical aid to more people, rather than taking it away from those who have worked hard to obtain it.

Then you are ready to vote for the DA.

The DA already runs the best municipal and provincial governments in South Africa today.

That is why only the DA can make tomorrow a better country.

Because we believe that South Africa can be a better country.

Today, our country suffers under the unbearable burden of unemployment, crime and poverty.

But these disasters are not inevitable.

These disasters were deliberately created by people.

By corrupt and selfish people, who betrayed our country.

Who used the corruption of BEE and cadre deployment to become billionaires, while plunging eleven million people into unemployment, and thirty million people into poverty.

Who sat by and watched as our country was sold to the Guptas.

Who hid undeclared dollars inside their couches, and then covered it up.

But, if having the wrong people in positions of power is destroying South Africa, then electing the right people into government can rescue South Africa.

That is exactly what we can do on Wednesday.

Because, in this election and for the first time ever, the DA has a clear pathway into national government.

By uniting with our partners inside the Multi-Party Charter, we have pooled together the biggest bloc of opposition votes since 1994.

Together, we can get to the 50%-plus-one we need to rescue South Africa.

With the ANC on its way out, if every DA voter comes out on Election Day, we can win!

On Wednesday, defeating the ANC and electing the DA is your date with destiny.

Don’t miss out on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to say: I was there, and I helped to make history by removing the ANC and electing the DA into government.

My fellow South Africans,

On Wednesday, you will hold in your hand the pen that writes a new chapter for South Africa.

But make no mistake about it: if DA voters stay at home, or if they split the vote among the long list of small parties on the ballot, our country’s next chapter could be even uglier than the last.

If we sit back and allow a coalition between the ANC, the EFF and the MK Party – aided by sell outs like the Patriotic Alliance – our tomorrow will be far, far worse than our yesterday.

The NHI will be implemented, property will be expropriated without compensation, corruption will engulf us, and the economy will collapse.

It will be Doomsday for South Africa.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

All it takes to prevent this coalition of corruption and ensure that tomorrow is a better country, is to turn out in our millions to vote for the DA.

I am convinced that the South African people are not about to sit back and allow their worst fears to rule over them.

Instead, the South African people are about to make history by voting for their hopes and installing a new government anchored by the proven track record of the Democratic Alliance.

During this campaign, I have visited every corner of the country, and I have met South Africans from all walks of life.

So, if you are one of the mothers I met, who is wondering how you are going to put food on the table tonight to feed your children.

If you are a father who feels pained and angry because you cannot find work to provide for your family.

If you are sick or ailing, and worry whether the public healthcare system will ever heal you.

If you are a young graduate who is forced to stand at a traffic light begging for a job.

Then I stand before you today to tell you that I have seen you.

I have tasted your bitter disappointments, I have heard your dreams, and I have felt your pain.

And, I am here today to tell you one thing:

Help is on the way!

And if you are watching this at home and you still don’t believe me, then please join me in welcoming the DA’s federal leadership onto the stage.

If you don’t believe me that tomorrow can be a better country, then I invite you to look at the faces of the people here today.

These people come from every background, they come from every neighbourhood, they come from every corner of this country.

These people are your neighbours, they are your friends, and they are your compatriots.

The talent and the diversity you see gathered here today, you will never see in any other political party.

If these patriots from diverse backgrounds can stand here as one to declare that they refuse to give up on South Africa, and that they are determined to make tomorrow a better country, then you watching at home can do the same.

You have the power to write a new chapter, where tomorrow is a better country.

It doesn’t matter where you live, what language you speak, or what your background is.

If you want a big, strong party with a proven track record of creating jobs and running effective governments.

If you want an end to unemployment, crime, corruption and poverty.

If you want to rescue South Africa.

And if you believe that tomorrow can be a better country – then you are ready to vote for the DA!

See you at the voting booths South Africa, where all of us will join you, in voting for a strong DA to rescue South Africa!

Your vote can rescue South Africa!

On Wednesday 29 May, vote DA!

Now please join me in standing for our National Anthem.

Issued by John Steenhuisen, Leader of the Democratic Alliance, 26 May 2024