ANC manifesto launch: South Africans deserve a party with a clear vision and set of solutions
Today's ANC manifesto launch revealed a party that is short on solutions or a coherent vision for South Africa.
ANC President, Jacob Zuma rightly acknowledged that South Africans are "frustrated" with the standards of service delivery they receive, but failed to show how the ANC will do anything differently this time around to address those problems. He spoke in vague terms about "clean government", but did not show that the ANC has joined the dots, and understood that you can either have clean, accountable, proactive and corruption-free government, or you can have cadre deployment and democratic centralism - but you cannot have both.
Without realising it, ANC Youth League President, Julius Malema pointedly illustrated this problem by telling South Africans earlier in the day to vote for the ANC irrespective of whether they approve of the candidates nominated by the party. He said: "Whether you like the [councillor's] face or not ... as long as next to that face is the emblem of the ANC, you must vote for that face."
This is precisely why service delivery breakdown has become pervasive under the ANC. If a party believes its candidates deserve to be voted for, irrespective of their record, then those candidates have no incentive to perform if they are elected.
Later this year, voters will be faced with a choice between a party whose record in government includes a City of Cape Town administration which provides the best access to basic services in the country, and another party which has presided over the failure of our electricity and road networks, has built houses and mud schools that fall down, and that has systematically failed to deliver on its promises.
Voters, in other words, will be presented with the opportunity of bringing to their municipality the clean, effective, corrupt-free government that Cape Town enjoys, by voting for the party that has a clear vision and set of solutions.
The launch of the ANC's manifesto today was the first indication of what will become increasingly clear to South Africa's voters during the course of the election campaign: the ANC is a party of meaningless promises, while the DA is a party of delivery for all.
Statement issued by Lindiwe Mazibuko MP, Democratic Alliance National Spokesperson, February 27 2011
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