Containing the cost of living is vital to improving people's lives

Note to editors: This is an extract of the speech delivered by Mmusi Maimane, DA National Spokesperson, at the North West Provincial Congress on April 21 2012

Colleagues, friends, fellow democrats

It is a great pleasure to speak at the North West Provincial Congress today.

I'm one of those people who believe that politics is about a contest of ideas; a contest of future visions for the country. Ultimately, people will support the party they believe have the best vision for the country; the party that offers the best future for their children.

And make no mistake friends; we face a mammoth task in winning this contest of ideas. For too long the ANC has gotten away with the false message that it is the party for a non-racial, non-sexist South Africa with a vision of a better life for all.

During every speech, every election event, every rally, ANC leaders speak of a non-sexist, non-racial society. Yet, when it really matters, in the days before elections, the ANC uses every tool at its disposal to mobilise people on the basis of race.

I say to you today that we reject those politics! We will stand on our principles and our plan for the future of this country - we will win that debate, and will win on that basis and never on the basis of race, class or any other divisions. Let others divide; we will unite South Africans around a common purpose - to improve the lives of all, to build a better future for our children and to build a united, reconciled nation.

But in order to be truly reconciled, and to overcome the scars of apartheid, we must make tangible progress in improving our people's living standards. And it is by this metric that the ANC has failed most dismally. In this province you have seen it all too often - ANC leaders continually fighting amongst themselves instead of focusing on governing; leaving municipalities dysfunctional and communities without proper services.

People are slowly awakening to the fact that the ANC does not deliver in this province, or anywhere else.

Our challenge is to convince them that the DA has a feasible plan to lead the country and improve their lives.

So, what is our vision for South Africa's future?

DA governments focus on four objectives:  Redress, reconciliation, diversity and delivery.

And the difference between our approach and the ANC's approach is most obvious on economic issues:  The ANC is obsessed with dividing up the economic pie we have right now, while the DA works towards growing the pie, so that there is enough for everyone to share in. You see this in every majour economic debate.

The ANC is debating nationalising the mines - driving away investors and slowing economic growth and job creation. Instead of this, the DA wants to create the right environment for our mines to grow and be profitable, so that more people can be employed in mining, more taxes can be collected and more people can share in the economic growth generated by more investment in mining. We want to grow the pie, while the ANC is fighting over who gets what portion of the pie we have now.

The ANC and its allies talk about banning labour brokers and temporary work. That will only kill the jobs of those people who are temporarily employed. And we all know that for many young people, the best way into a job is to first work in a temporary position, gain some experience and then leverage their experience to get a better job permanently. This is necessary since our education system does not always provide our young people with the skills necessary to compete in the job market. We want to reform our labour laws, so that our businesses can afford to employ more people. We want to grow the pie, while the ANC is fighting over who gets what portion of the pie we have now.

The DA wants to put a youth wage subsidy in place to create more jobs. But the ANC is too afraid to implement a wage subsidy, because its alliance partner, COSATU, opposes it. We want to grow the pie, while the ANC is fighting over who gets what portion of the pie we have now.

We want to contain the cost of living. South Africans are feeling the pinch with increases in the price of food, fuel, toll tariffs, electricity and municipal rates and taxes. But the ANC government is going full steam ahead with e-tolling, increases in the price of electricity, more taxes on fuel, and now the latest revelation is that South Africans will have to help pay for government's R500 billion shortfall in water infrastructure. I don't know about you, but I'm tired of being milked dry by a government that doesn't deliver and wastes our money!

So, this week I launched a new campaign to contain the cost of living. Together with our economic team in Parliament, I have put together a proactive set of proposals to help cushion South Africans from the worst government-fuelled price increases. I will be taking these proposals to government Ministers, state entities and the public at large. The time has come to end the spiralling increases in the cost of living.

After conducting some research we calculated that the cost of basic food items that people use every day, like bread, maize and cooking oil, more than doubled in the last five years.

There are very few people whose income have kept up with these price increases - with the implication that our people must spend more and more on basic necessities needed for living, leaving less money to invest in their children's education, in their retirement or in their homes. And that only entrenches people deeper into poverty.

Our solution is to reform our economy to create jobs, attract investment, grow the economy and grow incomes relative to the cost of living to improve the living standards of our people. Only then can we be a truly reconciled nation.

It is vital that we take this message of redress, reconciliation, diversity and delivery - our vision of the future - to every corner of this province and the country.

And that's where you come in. You are the foot soldiers in this contest of ideas. We can only win it if you spread this message to your friends, families, branches and communities relentlessly.

People are ready to be convinced - they have tasted the bitter failure of ANC governments for 18 years now. It is just up to us to go out there and provide our vision for the future.

If we all work together I guarantee you our vision for the future will win the day.

I thank you.

Issued by the DA, April 21 2012

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