We will win the fight for those South Africans left behind by the ANC

Note to editors: attached please find a soundbite in English.

The DA’s Federal Executive met yesterday and today to consider our programme of action for 2018.

South Africa has entered the New Year with a vastly altered political landscape, but the underlying social and economic challenges remain unchanged.

The DA’s fight is for the 9.3 million unemployed and the 30.4 million South Africans living in poverty. Our mission is to reduce this unemployment, alleviate this poverty and provide access to opportunity for young South Africans.

This is what we are fighting for, and what will occupy our agenda for 2018.

Our 2019 national campaign is thus a non-negotiable priority for all of us across the country.

Accordingly, next weekend we will be launching a “Total Change for Jobs Now” campaign in Emfuleni that will reiterate our priority of creating opportunities and jobs for young, unemployed South Africans. Here the DA Leader, Mmusi Maimane, will set out how we would bring total change to alleviate the desperation and despair these South Africans continue to feel.

At this launch, Mr Maimane will also outline what a future DA government’s plan would be to create a civilian national service, free education for the poor, focus on job-creating growth, release the basic education system from SADTU’s stranglehold and launch an apprenticeship and internship system.

We reiterate our policy on Higher Education which would ensure that those who cannot afford to fund their own tertiary education and are qualifying individuals would receive funding for their studies. Those who can afford to pay must pay otherwise we are simply deepening inequality in our society.

This campaign launch will be followed by people’s forum meetings that Mr Maimane has already been engaging in this month and will continue to attend with Provincial Leaders across the country in the lead up to the DA’s State of the Nation address in less than three weeks. This address will be about changing the real state of the nation as told through the stories of ordinary South Africans.

Our fight extends to the management of Cape Town’s drought. As a party, we will work with our provincial and city government to do all that we can to avoid Day Zero.

We call on all residents to save water. A party campaign to communicate what the plan for the City of Cape Town is and to encourage water saving will be launched this week and Mr Maimane will lead and communicate this in the coming days alongside City of Cape Town and Western Cape Government representatives. The enormous work that is being done to manage and direct the response to the unprecedented drought conditions cannot be overemphasised. As the Leader of the DA, Mr Maimane will continue to engage the City of Cape Town on both the water crisis and the City’s current leadership difficulties.

The Federal Executive considered the progress being made in our governments including the newly won metros of Johannesburg, Tshwane and Nelson Mandela Bay and our focus is on building capable governments that are able to deliver for all. We will continue to govern in such a way that opens opportunities for young people and improves the lives of poor black South Africans.

Ultimately the DA’s fight includes building on and refining DA Policy, through a series of workshops, which include outside experts. A clear, comprehensive and compelling policy offer will be tabled at the DA's Federal Congress this coming April, including a policy on growing the economy and creating jobs, fighting corruption and building the opportunity ladder for all South Africans.

Our structured campaign for the first registration weekend coming up in March is well underway. We urge all South Africans to register to vote for change which can be done on our new and innovative self-canvassing application.

The DA is the only alternative to getting South Africa moving forward again. We must keep focused on our objectives and always remember who we are fighting for.

When we get this right, this is a fight that we will win.

Statement issued by Phumzile van Damme MP, DA National Spokesperson, 20 January 2018