Mbeki is right about Zuma's ANC

Note to editors: The following is an extract from a speech delivered by Mmusi Maimane, DA Gauteng Premier candidate, at a Bekkersdal community meeting organized by the Concerned Residents Association.

We stand here today 20 years after the birth of our democracy. And, make no mistake, South Africa has a good story to tell.

We have made inroads to roll back the legacy of Apartheid. 

We have a healthy democracy where every citizen has the right to choose their government. 

We have institutions - such as the Public Protector - that are willing to hold the powerful to account.

South Africa is a better place today than it was in 1994.

The question is: will the South Africa of tomorrow be a better place than it is today? Will the South African story have a happy ending?

I put it to you today that the good story the ANC had to tell ended when Zuma's ANC recalled Mbeki from office for daring to fire Zuma for corruption. 

It ended when Zuma's ANC bullied the National Prosecuting Authority to drop corruption charges against President Zuma.

It ended with Jacob Zuma's election in 2009.

That election opened the door to corruption on a grand scale. It opened the door to Nkandla - surely the most blatant abuse of public money ever seen in our country.

President Thabo Mbeki is right when he says that we should be worried about Nkandla. And he is correct that Nkandla tells us something about the quality of leadership in today's ANC (see BDLive report). 

Because the problem runs far deeper than one person.

You see, Jacob Zuma is not the cause of the ANC's problems. He is the symptom. He is just the most obvious manifestation of a far deeper problem. 

The truth is that this once proud movement has been corrupted by power. And once a party has become corrupted on this scale, there is no way back.

We are all proud of the role the ANC played in the struggle against apartheid. But it is time to accept that this movement is no more. 

The only way forward is to choose change.

That is what elections are about: the right to change your government when it fails you. 

That is what Madiba taught us when he said: 

"If the ANC does to you what the apartheid government did to you, then you must do to the ANC what you did to the apartheid government."

Friends, the moment to choose change has arrived.

We cannot let Jacob Zuma back into power for another five years. We cannot afford another five years of unemployment and corruption. 

We saw what happens, right here in Bekkersdal, when we vote politicians back into power and they fail us over and over again. There is a service delivery crisis here but when we exercise our right to protest, they shoot us with live ammunition! 

That you have invited me here today tells me that this a community that is ready for change. If I am elected to serve you I will do my best to improve the lives of every citizen of this province. 

And if I fail you, I expect you to choose change again in 2019. No political party in a democracy deserves blind loyalty.

If enough people vote for change, our story may yet have a happy ending. Let us write a new chapter on 7 May. That really would be a good story to tell.

Issued by the DA, March 26 2014

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