The historic Multi-Party Charter is now polling at 50% in KZN

4 November 2023

My fellow citizens,

It is always such a pleasure to speak with you from my beautiful home province of KwaZulu-Natal.

It is this province that shaped my political career, and my life.

It is also in this province where I had a front row seat to see the decline caused by decades of ANC misrule.

So it is fitting that it is in this province from where I today deliver a new message of hope.

I am here today to tell you that in the 2024 election, we can make history – starting right here in KwaZulu-Natal.

For the past thirty years, every national election in this country has been a foregone conclusion.

For the past thirty years, every time we went to vote, we all knew that the ANC would win.

The only question was by how much.

But those days are long gone.

The ANC’s corruption and misrule has reduced that party to a shadow of its former self.

We all know that, in the end, politics comes down to cold, hard numbers.

So let’s look at what the numbers tell us about the fall of the ANC.

In the 2021 local election, the ANC lost its national majority for the very first time.

Its support throughout the country plummeted to only 46 percent.

It is a trend that has only accelerated since November 2021.

Over the past two weeks, we saw two respected polls – from the Brenthurst Foundation and the Social Research Foundation – confirming that ANC support is now collapsing even further.

They show that the party that once ruled this country with an iron fist, can now barely scrape together 40 percent nationally.

Nowhere is the collapse of the ANC more visible, more tangible, and more ripe with promise for change, than right here in KwaZulu-Natal.

The people of KwaZulu-Natal don’t need polls to tell us that the ANC is disintegrating.

We have all seen it with our own eyes in this province, as they get crushed in by-election after by-election.

To paraphrase Fikile Mbalula: the ANC is now the biggest bunch of losers in the entire South Africa!

And, in this very moment that the ANC is fading into oblivion, a new hope is rising – also here in KwaZulu-Natal.

You can feel this new hope amidst the rolling hills of uMngeni.

It is a new hope that has spread to the shores of Richard’s Bay.

There is a new hope in the streets of Durban and in the villages around Ulundi.

This new hope started when the people of uMngeni elected the very first DA mayor in KwaZulu-Natal in 2021.

This mayor is also the DA’s premier candidate for 2024: Chris Pappas.

Since his election, people around the province, and around the country, found a new sense of hope as they watched the DA clean up the streets, repair basic services, and ignite the economy of this municipality in the heart of KwaZulu-Natal.

Their hope grew as they saw the DA and IFP forge unity that culminated in a service delivery pact for this province.

It swelled further when the a DA deputy mayor was elected to serve side-by-side with an IFP mayor in uMhlathuze.

And, in August, this new hope culminated in the formation of the Multi-Party Charter for South Africa.

The Charter has united eight different political parties, including the DA and IFP, around a common vision and set of priorities to rescue South Africa.

The hope created by the Charter is now rippling across this province, and across our entire country.

The hope embodied by the Charter is anchored in the same vision as the one that carried our World Champion Springboks to victory: that we are, indeed, Stronger Together.

But there is another lesson we should learn from the Springboks.

That lesson is that this country can only succeed when we finally get rid of the ANC.

The truth is that South Africa won the Rugby World Cup for a fourth successive time precisely because the ANC were unable to interfere.

Imagine what would have happened to the Springboks if Cyril Ramaphosa’s cadre deployment committee was involved in selecting the team?

The Springbok victory shows us how South Africa can thrive if we work together and rid ourselves of the curse that is this ANC government.

By working together in the Multi-Party Charter to defeat the ANC, we will build a Springbok economy!

By working together in the Charter to defeat the ANC, we will build a Springbok country – united in our diversity and by our shared pursuit of excellence!

For the first time in our democratic history, the Charter gives us the opportunity to elect a new government that can rescue South Africa.

And the DA sits at the heart of this new hope.

At the same time that polls and by-elections show ANC support collapsing, they also show a surge in support for the DA.

The polls show DA national support is now between 25 percent and 31 percent – incredible growth since 2019, when we got 20 percent.

The picture is even more exciting in KZN.

I can today reveal that the DA’s latest internal polling shows that the Multi-Party Charter last week crossed the magical majority threshold in this province.

That’s right.

The Charter is now polling at exactly 50 percent in KwaZulu-Natal, while the ANC has collapsed to only 36 percent.

This means that the Charter is on track to make history and form a new provincial government without the ANC and EFF next year.

The DA here in KZN has pioneered the wonderful message that 1 + 1 = Win.

So let’s do the maths together on the polling.

In this province, the DA is now on 21 percent, the IFP is on 24, and the rest of our Charter partners are collectively on 5 percent.

21 + 24 + 5 = 50!

Now that is what winning looks like!

This historic moment, that sees the Charter polling at an outright majority in KZN also has profound national implications.

People who register to vote DA in 2024 in this province, will not only help us liberate KZN from the ANC’s corrupt grip.

They will also help to defeat the ANC nationally.

With the DA on track to obtain an even bigger majority in the Western Cape, combined with the surge in support for the Charter in KwaZulu-Natal as well as in Gauteng, we are positioned to defeat the ANC nationally.

Should we win KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and the Western Cape, we will put an insurmountable roadblock in the way of an ANC national majority.

Liberating these three provinces – which is home to two-thirds of all voters in our country – holds the key to replacing the ANC in national government.

So let’s do the math one more time.

The Western Cape + Gauteng + KwaZulu-Natal = a new government to rescue South Africa!

My fellow citizens,

Our country is on the line in next year’s election.

But the new hope represented by the Multi-Party Charter, means that we have never had a better opportunity to rescue South Africa.

In fact, it is time that we stop thinking about the Charter as an opposition project, and start viewing it as a government-in-waiting.

Instead of Cyril Ramaphosa’s disgraceful Cabinet, which includes the likes of Bheki Cele, Angie Motshekga, Lindiwe Zulu, Blade Nzimande and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, a Charter government will bring fresh ideas and diverse voices together around the Cabinet table.

In keeping with the spirit of “Stronger Together,” the eight parties currently in the Charter represent a broad spectrum of South African society.

A Charter Cabinet will be the most diverse and representative government in our country’s history.

And the DA is deeply committed to serving as the anchor tenant for this new government.

As the biggest member of the Charter – and based on our unique track record of good governance in places like the Western Cape, Midvaal and uMngeni – the DA is the perfect choice for any voter who want a new coalition government that both embraces diverse voices while also being stable, coherent and able to deliver.

It is only such a coalition government, anchored by the DA, that will bring an end to load shedding.

That will abolish cadre deployment corruption.

That will grow our economy to create millions of new jobs.

That will put criminals in jail – including those criminals who carry ANC membership cards.

The 2024 election presents South Africa with an opportunity we dare not miss.

While the ANC’s terminal decline has opened the door for the DA and our partners to win nationally and in provinces like KZN, it has also opened the door for the EFF and greedy small parties to sell out and keep the ANC in power.

We have already seen how the coalition of corruption between the ANC, EFF and greedy small parties has destroyed eThekwini.

This coalition of corruption has collapsed service delivery in Johannesburg to the point where roads explode and deadly building fires claim innocent lives.

And after inheriting a stable financial foundation from the former DA mayor, the coalition of corruption between the ANC and EFF has bankrupted Ekurhuleni in a matter of months.

We must now do absolutely everything in our power to prevent the coalition of corruption from taking over the whole South Africa.

And the single best way to prevent this doomsday scenario, is by registering to vote DA.

A vote for the DA is a vote for a diverse and stable Charter government to rescue South Africa.

A vote for the DA is a vote for good governance, for service delivery, and against corruption.

A vote for the DA is a vote against greedy small parties that will sell out to the ANC.

A vote for the DA is a vote to prevent an ANC-EFF coalition of corruption from destroying South Africa.

A strong DA will rescue South Africa.

And a strong DA will keep the EFF out.

But we need your help.

On the 18th and 19th of November, every voting station across the country will be open for people to get registered.

If you want a new provincial government to rescue KwaZulu-Natal, then you must go out and register to vote DA on 18 and 19 November.

If you want a new national government to rescue South Africa, then you must go out and register to vote DA on 18 and 19 November.

If you want to prevent an ANC-EFF coalition from destroying South Africa, then you must go out and register to vote DA on 18 and 19 November.

The 2024 election is the moment we have been waiting for.

It is the opportunity of a lifetime to rescue our country.

And it is your opportunity to be part of history.

To play your role in defeating the ANC once and for all.

To play your role to rescue South Africa.

But if you fail to register, the cold, hard truth is that you will be keeping the ANC in power.

That is why I am calling on every citizen who loves this beautiful country as much as I do, and who wants to see it become the thriving place it can be, to take up your responsibility to rescue South Africa.

I promise you that you will regret it if you wake up on Election Day in 2024 and find out that you cannot vote because you did not register.

Avoid that regret.

Help us turn Election Day 2024 into a historic day, where you can feel proud that you used your most powerful weapon – your vote – to rescue South Africa.

So, on 18 and 19 November, let’s go out and rock the registration!

Don’t regret. On 18 and 19 November, go out and register to rescue South Africa!

Thank you.

Issued by John Steenhuien, DA Leader, 4 November 2023