ANC offers you 'comradeville', the DA offers you jobs

Note to editors: This is an extract of a speech that was delivered on Saturday, August 4, by the DA's Parliamentary Leader, Lindiwe Mazibuko MP, in the Greater Kokstad Municipality in KwaZulu- Natal, while addressing members of the community about the DA's recently launched, Plan for Growth and Jobs.

Good Afternoon, friends, colleagues and fellow democrats,

Sanibonani nonke eKokstad!

Ngijabula kakhulu ukuba la eSisonke namuhlanje. Yize ngingeyena owaseKokstad, isifundazwe saKwaZulu-Natal sihlala sisenhliziyweni yami. Izinkolelo zami kweze-politiki zaqala lapha kulesifundazwe. Noma ikupi lapho ngihamba khona, ngihlala ngicabanga ngesimo saKwa-Zulu-Natal.

[I am delighted to be here with you in Sisonke today. While I do not come from Kokstad, this province has a special place in my heart. 

My beliefs were shaped here and my politics formed here. Wherever I go, I carry the memories of KwaZulu-Natal with me.]

In its composition and diversity, KwaZulu-Natal seems to contain all the beauty, promise and, yet, human tragedy of South Africa. 

This is a province that has been scarred by violence and broken promises. From the political violence of the early 1990s to the HIV/AIDS pandemic which continues to claim the lives of so many across the province, KwaZulu Natal has been shackled. 

Lokhu kuyangidabukisa ngoba ngiyazi ukuthi abantu baKwaZulu-Natal banokuningi abangakwenzela lelizwe lase Ningizimu Afrika. 

[This saddens me because I know its people have so much to offer.]

I know that throughout this province, there are doctors and engineers; Olympic athletes and nurses, who could have been. 

The evil of Apartheid stripped so many of our people the opportunity to create a better life for themselves and their children.  Today, we are still dealing with these consequences. Poverty and inequality continue to hold us down in shackles, and deny our children the chance to have a better life.

I know that this is your reality here in Kokstad as well. This region is one of the most economically depressed in the province. 

Ngaphandle komsebenzi, umuntu akakwazi ukushintsha impilo yakhe ibe ncono. 

Umsebenzi uyindlela yokumkhipha ekusweleni. Kuyindlela yokuqala eholela umuntu empilweni engcono, ngoba imusiza ngokuba athole ikhono azokwazi ukuthi aphinde aziphilise ngalo nakusasa.

Umsebenzi usinika imali yokuziphilisa, nokuphilisa kahle imindeni yethu; singakwazi nokufundisa abantwana bethu ukuze babe nekusasa elihle. Okubaluleke kakhulu ukuthi kusinika isithunzi, kanye nesizotha empilweni yethu. Lokho kusenza sikwazi ukuziqhenya njengabantu.

[Without jobs, people remain trapped. A job is their ticket out of poverty. It is the first step on the ladder to prosperity, by allowing us to gain skills that we can use again, and which can allow us to get a better job in the future.

It gives us money that we can save, and which we can invest in our children. It provides us with personal worth, and makes us feel proud.]

This is the ticket which the DA wants to give every South African. It is the ticket to a better life that you deserve, and which you have been denied for too long. But there are not many of these tickets to a better life around. Every year, too few people get them. So, in the DA, we have a plan to create more and more, so that everyone can access them. 

We can do this by growing the economy by 8%. Because when the economy grows, the government has more money to spend. Companies have more goods to sell, and they need more people to help them make the goods that they need. The result is more jobs, and more tickets out of poverty.

Kodwa lokhu ngeke kuzenzekele. Abantu badinga uhulumeni omi kanye nabo, futhi ozokwakha isisekelo esizovumela ukuthi lokhu kwenzeke. 

Yikho lokhu okuqondwe yi-Plan for Growth & Jobs ye-DA. Le-Plan ifuna ukuqinisekisa ukuthi uhulumeni ungakubantu ngokusiza ukwakheka kwemisebenzi; nokukhula komnotho; kanye nokwakheka kweminye imisebenzi.

[But this will not happen on its own. You need the government to be on your side and help build the foundations which will allow for this to happen.

This is what the DA's Plan for Growth and Jobs aims to do. It wants to make sure that the government is on the side of the people, by helping ensure that the economy grows, and more and more jobs are created.]

This is the key difference between the ANC and the DA. 

The ANC is producing fewer and fewer tickets to a better life for South Africans. They rather give the jobs to their friends and connections. 

That is why corruption and cronyism are so widespread across South Africa.

For the ANC, government is not about helping the people of Kokstad, or Umzimkhulu or Ingwe, but about staying in power so that the elite can give more and more tickets to their friends.

Just look at this headline in the Mail and Guardian yesterday. President Jacob Zuma is spending R1 billion on building a new town just 3,2 km from his homestead in Nkandla. 
They called it ‘Zumaville'. I would have called it 'Comradeville'.

How can President Zuma explain spending so much money on one single project, when across the province so many people find themselves without even the most basic services?

As part of this expansion, Zuma's very own Nkandla Homestead is being turned into a palace. The Department of Public Works, which has been slow to help your local hospital here in Kokstad, is spending R36 million, which will include:

• 10 houses for air force personal
• 10 houses for South African Police Service staff
• A military health facility
• And a helipad

Kuthiwani ke ngabantu baseSisonke?

Ngiyazi ukuthi nani nithwele kanzima usuku ngosuku. Ngiye ngizwe ukuthi e-Horseshoe, la ngizoya khona emva kwalomhlangano, izindlu zangasese ziyachichima, kodwa ompompi abanamanzi.

Siyazi futhi ukuthi izikole azibaniki abantwana bethu imfundo ebafanele; nokuthi umasipala walapha akanayo imali eyanele ukuqinisekisa ukuthi abantu balungiselwe zonke izidingo zabo.

[And what about the residents of Sisonke?]

[I know that you too battle each and every day. I am told in Horsehoe, where I will visit after this meeting, your toilets overflow, while your taps run dry.

I know too that your schools don't provide quality education to your children; and that your municipality doesn't have enough money to spend to ensure you receive proper services.]

You need more roads. But Zuma is giving himself a helipad. You need houses. But Zuma is building barracks for police at his homestead. You need jobs. But Zuma would rather get the latest state of the art security, including under-ground tunnels, to ensure his safety.

President Zuma is building himself a palace as if he will be President forever. The only thing Zuma should be afraid of is the high levels of unemployment which keep so many people in KwaZulu Natal in extreme poverty. This, friends, is the difference between the DA and the ANC.

The ANC gives you Zumaville - or should I say, Comradeville. The DA offers you job creation, through better education, basic services and infrastructure, and new policies which will attract investment to your area. The ANC will build helipads.

The DA will build roads and fix the railway lines so that businesses can prosper and you can get more jobs. The ANC will give your ticket to a better life to its friends and family. The DA will make sure that every South African has a ticket out of poverty. This is what our Plan for Growth and Jobs will do for you. 

Not just in Nkandla, but also in Sisonke, in Ugu, in Mkhanyakude, in Othungulu and Othukela - across KwaZulu Natal and South Africa. But we cannot do this unless we are in government nationally. 

So South Africa has a choice, more jobs for all; or more jobs for Zuma's friends.
Vote DA, and help work for more jobs for all. Only we can help you access your ticket out of poverty.

Issued by the DA, August 4 2012

Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter