While Ramaphosa was trying to sort out his party, the DA was creating jobs

13 February 2019

Madame Speaker,

Honourable President,

Your speech dished up ladles full of syrupy hope, but all of the spun sugar won’t be enough to make the country forget what the ANC has done to South Africa these last 10 years.

- From the largest economy in Africa to third

- The highest youth unemployment in the world

- 9,7 million jobless people

- Increased electricity prices by 356%, and still bankrupted Eskom, and still can’t keep the lights on

And let’s not forget, the whole time you were building a criminal syndicate fronting as a political party. And now you want to expropriate the pension savings of the hard working public to bailout the SOEs that you bankrupted. The message is clear: The ANC eats, the public pays.

Through it all, no one has gone to jail. No one!

No jail time state capture!
No jail time for Life Esidimeni!
No jail time for Marikana!
No jail time for Jacob Zuma!

You see, the truth cuts through all the candy-floss, sir. The truth is that the ANC set the house on fire and is now asking for five more years to put the fire out. While the President peddles hope, the country is asking, how did we get here, who got us here, and, Mr President, what were you doing when you were there all that time?

If voters are looking for hope in action, they need only look to the one province in South Africa governed by the DA.

Where the DA governs, jobs are created. In the 10 years of DA government in the Western Cape, job growth has been triple the next best province. That equals 640 000 new jobs, more than the entire population of Mangaung, in new jobs. Unemployment where we govern is 14% points lower than the rest of the country.Out of all the jobs that were created in the whole country, 53,3% are from the one place where the DA governs.

Citizens know that they can get a fair chance under the DA. They don’t have to pay anyone to get a job, or sleep with anyone to get a job, or show their ANC card to get a job.

The DA makes sure that jobs are available fairly and equally to all. While you were trying to sort out your party, we were creating jobs.

While Zondo was showing the world the ANC’s criminal heart, we were creating jobs. While your son was doing business with Bosasa, we were creating jobs. That is what the DA does. We get things done, for the people, not for the politicians.

Now, the Leader of the Opposition has said that the DA aspires for every home to have at least one person who is employed - a job in every home. I thought it would be difficult to find statistics on this, but actually, open the StatsSA General Household Survey, and there it is!

I am happy to report that the DA is already delivering on this goal. Nationally 20.1%, or 3.2 million families, rely on grant income alone. But where the DA governs, this number is 9%, less than half the rest of the country. 91% of families where the DA govern have at least one job.

We are on our way to getting this done too. That is what we do. We roll back poverty, we unlock enterprise, we free small business to thrive, we spread broadly the ownership of secure private property.

We do this because we love our country and its people; and because South Africa deserves better than a party asking us to give it another chance to solve problems that it has caused.

The ANC destroyed the Scorpions and defanged the NPA. Now the ANC is reopening the Scorpions. The ANC imposed e-tolls, then the ANC marches against e-tolls. The ANC owned Hitachi Africa that built the boilers for Medupi. Now that the boilers are failing, the President tells us he is “shocked and angry” at load-shedding.

This is the consequence of what was state capture, long before the term was coined. The President says he is “shocked and angry”, but his party has literally profited from destroying Eskom. Every time the lights go out, jobs are lost. Load shedding is job shedding!

And on the 8th of May, there’s going to be Stage 4 ANC vote shedding.

It is like being on a never-ending rollercoaster of bad Marxist policies which hurtle inevitably towards collapse and corruption, and then spin at the last moment into new proposals to fix the old ones. With each convulsing corkscrew, people’s lives hang in the balance. At the end of each loop, the ANC is forced to adopt a solution that the DA offered at the beginning.

Specialised gang and drug units. Splitting Eskom. The Youth Wage Subsidy.

But even today Luthuli House says they won’t let you split Eskom. This just confirms - they hired you as the new face of the criminal syndicate, but its the same criminals still running it. This is not a 9 year Zuma phenomenon, it is the permanent character of the ANC. It is the only possible consequence of the ANC’s dogma of state control and the quashing of free enterprise, under which no country can ever prosper.

The President quoted two American Presidents in his speech, JFK and Teddy Roosevelt. Those men made their country prosper by pursuing enterprise, competition, individual liberty and security of widely-owned private property. But the ANC rejects all of these values.

That is why South Africa cannot thrive under the ANC. The bus is broken, and a different driver can’t fix it. South Africa must be lead by the DA’s values because it is the only way our country can be lead. So, while the President may wish for a national suspension of disbelief, voters will look to a party that has proven hope in action.

“Hope in action” that our national decline is not inevitable and is not irreversible.

“Hope in action” to get more people into work and a job in every home.

“Hope in action” to bring our country together and build one South Africa for all.

And with the support of the wonderful people of our great country, “hope in action” for victory on the 8th of May.

Issued by Geordin Hill-Lewis, DA Member of the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry. 13 February 2019