After Wednesday South Africa will never be the same again
Note to editors: This speech was delivered today by Helen Zille at the Bara Taxi Rank, Soweto, Johannesburg.
Fellow South Africans,
There are two days to go until election day.
And after Wednesday, South Africa will never be the same again.
The ANC rally on Sunday showed us all that the ANC has finally abandoned the values of Nelson Mandela. Both President Zuma and Julius Malema did their best to divide South Africans on the basis of race. They trampled on Nelson Mandela's vision of building one rainbow nation with one shared future.
The ANC on Sunday made it quite clear: if you want racial division and failed service delivery you should vote for them. But if you want a growing economy, real opportunities, improved service delivery, redress and reconciliation, the DA is the logical choice. More and more South Africans who want our country to succeed are making that choice. That is why the result in three metros hangs in the balance on Wednesday.
South Africans of all races have learnt that if they support a party that has failed them, it will continue to fail them. That is why blind loyalty to a political party in a democracy is a bad thing. It allows corruption to flourish. It allows governments to get away with poor service delivery. It allows political parties to forget about the people and enrich themselves.
The people of South Africa are being neglected because the politicians in power think that the voters will keep voting for them whatever happens.
If we don't break this cycle, we will never get anywhere. This election is your chance to take our democracy to the next level; this is your chance to help our democracy succeed.
We are asking you to lend us your vote so that we can prove what we can do in government here. And we have a very good chance of forming a new government in Johannesburg. If every voter who wants change goes out and votes DA on election day, we can win. If we win, we will get to work straight away. Everything we do will be to improve your lives. After five years, you will see a difference.
If you don't see a difference after five years, you can take your vote somewhere else at the next election. That is the point of a democracy. Your vote belongs to you and nobody else. It is your power. There is not much you can do about Chiefs and Pirates' performance this season, but there is something you can do about your government's.
So use your vote wisely. Don't just give it away to the same party for old time's sake. Think about the future. Put us to the test on Wednesday. Vote DA.
Because the DA delivers for all!
Issued by the DA, May 16 2011
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