If you want a job, vote for the DA

27 April 2024

Fellow Democrats,

It is fantastic to be back in my home province of KwaZulu-Natal with all of you today.

As much as I love taking the DA’s message of hope across the length and breadth of South Africa on this tour, you know what they say.

There’s no place like home.

And boy, what a time it is for politics in the province of KwaZulu-Natal.

Everywhere you go, you can just feel the energy.

In this province, it is no longer a question of whether change will arrive on 29 May.

The people of this province know that change is coming!

They can feel it, because it is here!

I want to thank each and every DA activist, member, supporter and leader for running an exemplary campaign in this province.

Let me tell you today, the country is sitting up and taking note of the spectacular work being done in this province by our provincial leadership and our Premier Candidate, Chris Pappas.

In fact, let’s get things started with an incredible statistic.

According to the Social Research Foundation, which is doing polling in KZN every day, if there was an election today with 60% turnout, the Democratic Alliance would emerge as the single biggest party in KwaZulu-Natal.

If Election Day was today, the SRF polling shows that the DA would get 26%, the ANC 25%, MK 23% and the IFP 16%.

I have been involved in KZN politics for over two decades and let me tell you: these figures would have been unthinkable until just a few years ago.

But it is because of the hard work and relentless campaigning of this blue machine that the DA is going to make history in the province of KwaZulu-Natal next month, just like we made history in uMngeni during the 2021 local elections.

Apart from the hard work of our committed DA activists, there is another key reason why the DA in KZN is going to shock the world on Election Day.

We all know that the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal is on its death bed.

It is so terrified of what is about to hit it on 29 May, that it is spending every waking moment fighting like cats and dogs with the MK Party.

But here’s the secret.

While the dying ANC is obsessed with fighting MK, the DA is busy fighting for the people of KwaZulu-Natal.

And voters are taking note.

They can see that the ANC has stopped even pretending to fight for the people – all the ANC ever does these days is fight with Zuma because they are terrified of an 82-year old man.

All they care about is fighting for their own positions.

But let them continue to show all of us how scared they are of Zuma.

We in the DA are not scared of anything in this election, because we know that we are fighting only for the people.

As the old saying goes: when two dogs fight over a bone, the third one runs away with it.

Democrats,

There is another reason why it is so great to be with you on this specific day.

Because today is Freedom Day in South Africa.

The day that commemorates the thirty-year anniversary of our country’s first democratic election.

On this day, it is important to think back to what the country voted for on 27 April 1994.

As much as that day was about celebrating equality, diversity and democracy, it was also about the most important freedom of all.

Economic freedom.

In 1994, millions of South Africans voted for a new future where all our people would have the financial means to live lives of dignity.

They voted for economic freedom, because true freedom is only possible when you have a job to meet the needs of your family and to build a better future.

Freedom without a job, is a form of abuse.

That is exactly what the ANC has done over the past thirty years.

They manipulated and abused South Africa with promises that could never be fulfilled without economic freedom.

Even as they try to manipulate people again during this election campaign, the truth is that the ANC has made most South Africans more economically unfree.

In 1994, the national unemployment rate was 20%.

Today, it is nearly 33% - and it increases to over 40% if we include people who have already given up on ever finding work.

Today, as we speak, 7 out of every 10 people younger than 24 years old cannot find work.

The ANC has condemned an entire generation of young people to grinding hardship.

Many of these young people are graduates, who worked hard and used their last cents to obtain a tertiary qualification.

But now many of them are begging at traffic lights, wearing their graduation gowns.

That is the cruel manipulation of the ANC in action.

They promised us dreams, but they delivered only nightmares.

If the 1994 election was about political freedom, then the 2024 election is about economic freedom.

Just like we commemorate 27 April 1994 for ushering in political freedom, we must one day look back on 29 May 2024 as the day that delivered economic freedom.

And let’s be clear about one thing.

Expropriating people’s property without compensation will bring only more economic unfreedom.

Nationalising banks, mines and industries is a recipe for even more economic unfreedom.

Taking away people’s savings and pensions through prescribed assets will only deliver more economic unfreedom.

These are the policies that a Doomsday Coalition between the ANC and EFF will deliver, which is why voters must prevent Doomsday by voting for the DA.

If we allow the ANC-EFF Doomsday Coalition to take over this province and this country, it will deliver even deeper hardship, poverty and misery.

But I am here today to tell the people of KwaZulu-Natal that it doesn’t have to be this way.

Our country does not need to have 30 million people trapped in poverty.

We do not need to have young children dying from hunger.

We do not need to have one of the highest unemployment rates in the whole world.

To understand just how far South Africa has fallen, we learned this past week that an international mining company had made a bid to takeover Anglo-American, perhaps the most iconic of all South African companies.

While we of course respect the market process, it was deeply disturbing to read that this bid was conditional on Anglo getting rid of its South African platinum and iron ore units, because international companies do not want to be exposed to our country.

There are 95 000 people working at Anglo.

By making South Africa toxic to international investors, by destroying our country’s infrastructure and by robbing us of our economic freedom, the ANC has put one of our most iconic companies and 95 000 jobs at risk.

Make no mistake about it: the lack of economic freedom in South Africa is a manmade disaster.

It is a disaster created by the men and women in the ANC over the past decades.

But because it is manmade, it also means that we can do something about it.

We can take the unemployment crisis in South Africa from being a manmade disaster to being a manmade success story.

All we need to do, is to use the power of our vote on 29 May to elect the DA to lead KwaZulu-Natal and South Africa.

Only a DA government can deliver economic freedom for the people of South Africa.

This isn’t just empty talk.

As you all know, at the moment, there is only one province in South Africa that is run by the DA.

There will be more after the election, but right now, that one province is the Western Cape.

And guess what?

Over the past five years, that one province created nearly 8 out of every 10 new jobs in the whole South Africa.

The eight other ANC provinces collectively only created 2 out of every 10 new jobs.

In one year alone, the Western Cape delivered 360 000 new jobs.

The message is clear.

If you want a job, vote for the DA.

If you want true economic freedom, vote for the DA.

If you want the South African dream, with a home for your family, a car to take your children to a decent school, food on the table every day, and savings that you can use to retire with, vote for the DA.

Because the DA is the only party that has proven that where we govern, we create hundreds of thousands of new jobs.

But it doesn’t end there.

Yesterday, I also launched the DA’s ground-breaking new economic policy.

Unlike the ANC that only uses jobs promises to manipulate us, the DA’s economic plan will rescue South Africans from unemployment.

Our new economic policy is deeply impressive.

It was designed in consultation with some of the leading economists in the world.

This is the plan that will deliver economic freedom to all South Africans.

This plan is so detailed, that we have been able to calculate how many jobs it will deliver through the different reforms we will bring.

The DA will create between 350 000 and 400 000 new jobs by improving the ease of doing business.

We will create a business-friendly environment by walking away from destructive policies like expropriation without compensation, the nationalisation of the Reserve Bank and the National Health Insurance.

We will replace the corruption of BEE with real empowerment that benefits the 30 million people living in poverty, rather than corrupt ANC cadres.

By creating a business friendly environment, removing import duties needed for manufacturing, and increasing funding and support to entrepreneurs, the DA will turn South Africa into a start-up nation.

Our country is filled to the brim with talented entrepreneurs, all we need is a DA government to give them economic freedom.

Another 350 000 to 450 000 new jobs will come through fiscal reforms by creating a government that spends and saves better.

Did you know that, at the moment, R1 out of every R5 you pay in taxes is used just to pay down the ANC’s R5.2 trillion debt?

Imagine how many roads and railways we could fix, how we could improve our ports, how we could fix water and electricity infrastructure, and how many jobs we could create with the R5.2 trillion that the ANC flushed down the drain!

To stop this wasteful spending, the DA will introduce a fiscal rule that links how much new debt the government can take on to economic growth.

Any households knows that you will go bankrupt if you keep spending more money than you bring in.

The DA will apply this same principle to every cent of your tax money.

And then the big one.

A DA government will fundamentally reform labour legislation to get South Africa working.

We will introduce a Youth Employment Opportunity Certificate that will give unemployed young people a competitive edge in the labour market.

The certificate will empower young people who have been jobless for more than 12 months to choose to exempt themselves from sectoral wage agreements, which will make them more attractive to employers.

Through our Youth Employment Opportunity Certificate, the DA will declare war on youth unemployment.

But we won’t stop there in our quest to deliver economic freedom.

We will amend NEDLAC’s rules to force it to show how its decisions will spur job creation.

We will make collective bargaining more representative, and we will help small businesses by exempting them from collective bargaining agreements they cannot afford.

These changes to labour policy will create another 700 000 to 1 000 000 new jobs.

We will also follow a new industrial policy pyramid that prioritises the urgent need to get the basics right first, including law and order, infrastructure, and better investments in education and training to boost our export competitiveness.

The DA will remove all export duties, and we will remove import duties on all products not made locally, and provide incentives to emerging industries.

By doing this, we will create an export-oriented economy focused on producing the products that we produce competitively.

And instead of treating our trading partners as enemies, the DA will expand exports to markets that value South African products.

These reforms together will generate another 500 000 to 650 000 new jobs.

By relentlessly pursuing economic freedom for all, the DA will deliver on our manifesto pledge to create over two million new jobs during the next administration.

And our economic reforms will lay the foundation for an economic miracle in South Africa as our country finally fulfils its true potential.

We will achieve all of this, because the DA is the party that will deliver true economic freedom.

We will deliver true economic freedom to the unemployed single mother who cannot afford food for her children.

We will deliver true economic freedom to the unemployed graduate, who spent every cent his family had on getting a degree but now cannot find work.

We will deliver true economic freedom to the father of four who has lost his job due to load shedding and now worries about how to feed his family.

I am here today to tell you: help is on the way.

Because by voting for the DA, you will get a new government with the right plan, with a proven track record, and with the people it takes to make change.

I now invite the DA’s provincial leaders as well as our candidates for the 2024 election, to join me on stage.

If you want a big, strong party with a proven track record of job creation to anchor a new government to rescue KwaZulu-Natal, vote DA.

If you want that same strong anchor party to create two million new jobs and to rescue South Africa from unemployment, vote DA.

If you want true economic freedom for you and your family, vote DA.

We can do it.

We must do it.

And, together, we will do it.

Thank you.

Issued by John Steenhuisen, Leader of the Democratic Alliance, 27 April 2024