#Vision2029: Let’s bring Freedom You Can Use to the Northern Cape

The following remarks were delivered by the DA Leader in Morning Glory, Upington, Northern Cape. The Leader is in the Northern Cape on the final leg of the national Vision 2029 Tour. He is accompanied by DA Northern Cape Provincial Leader, Andrew Louw MPL, and DA Northern Cape Provincial Chairperson, Harold McGluwa MPL. 

My fellow South Africans,

Thank you for welcoming me into your province and to your community here in Upington. The people of the Northern Cape have hearts as big as the sky around here, and I always enjoy how warm and inviting this part of the country is.

I have been traveling across South Africa for months now, taking the DA’s Vision 2029 Tour to every corner of every province. The Northern Cape is my last stop on the tour before we kick off our campaign for Election 2016. A campaign to bring the change we need and freedom you can use to municipalities across the country.

The purpose of this tour is to share with South Africans our vision of a South Africa under a DA government. We call this Vision 2029 because it describes a South Africa ten years after the DA takes over the national government and occupies the Union Buildings in 2019. 

And the South Africa in our vision is not the South Africa under the current government.

Our vision isn’t based on an economy of insiders and outsiders – where only those with the right connections find themselves on the inside with a job, and the rest of us are left outside. No, the DA’s vision is built around a growing, inclusive economy where everyone has the opportunity to live a life they value and get ahead.

Our vision isn’t satisfied with slow service delivery and an education system that leaves our children stranded and hopeless. No, our vision sees services like electricity, water and sanitation rolled out to all South Africans, and world class education offered in every school. An education system that provides a pathway to opportunity for our children.

And in our vision, the word Freedom doesn’t simply mean a symbolic freedom that comes with the right to vote. In the DA’s vision, Freedom means being part of the economy, it means having a job and living with dignity. In other words, not just Freedom on a piece of paper, but Freedom you can actually use.

And it is this idea of “Freedom you can use” that I’d like to speak to you about today. You see, many of us were sold a dream of freedom by the ANC – that is not our reality today.  

The ANC came to power as a liberation movement. Their role in the struggle for a free and democratic South Africa will always be massive. That’s why many of us entrusted them with our votes. And progress was certainly made after 1994. South Africa has become a better place than it was in 1994. But the progress of Madiba’s ANC has come to halt. Zuma’s ANC does not care about your and your children’s freedom. They care about themselves, their friends and family. 

When I look at a province like the Northern Cape and I see people struggling every day to put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads, I don’t see people who are free. I don’t see people who can sleep well at night, knowing their children’s freedom is secure.

When more than half the young people don’t have work, they are not free. When thousands of families must walk kilometres for water, or use bucket toilets, they’re not free. When crime and drugs threaten your children every day in your own streets and your own schools, you are not free.

There is a thing that happens to all liberation movements when they fail to deliver on their promise to the people, and it is happening to Zuma’s ANC right now: As the memories of Madiba’s ANC begin to fade, all that remain are the problems of today: unemployment, inequality and hopelessness.

The people say: “You promised us freedom” and Zuma’s ANC says: “But look, we liberated you”. And the people say: “But we’re poor and we’re suffering; we don’t feel free”. And Zuma’s ANC knows it doesn’t have an answer for this.

President Jacob Zuma and his cabal have become used to the good life in government, and they have no intention of giving this up. They see the jobs, the power and the money as their reward, and they will protect this no matter what.

When a liberation movement reaches the end of its road, all that’s left standing are Big Men who no longer care about the people they are meant to serve. Big Men who only care about becoming rich and staying in power.

Big Men like President Jacob Zuma. And Big Men like your former Finance MEC here in the Northern Cape, John Block.

These Big Men know they have failed the people. They know they can’t hide behind the stories of the struggle any longer. And so they start surrounding themselves with loyal cadres who will protect them from the law and from the will of the people.

They try to hold on to power for as long as possible, because power means wealth. Power means tenders. Power means kickbacks.

But there comes a time when even an army of loyal cadres can’t protect you, as John Block recently found out. His corrupt lifestyle – using his position in the Provincial Government to enrich himself – finally caught up with him when he was found guilty of fraud, corruption and money laundering here in the Northern Cape High Court.

And John Block wasn’t the exception. In every province run by Zuma’s ANC you will find people like him. People who don’t care about bringing real freedom to communities like yours. People who only care about themselves. People who simply follow the example set by President Zuma.

John Block may be gone from the provincial government, but his legacy lives on here in the Northern Cape. His culture of insiders vs outsiders lives on in municipalities across the province. Municipalities where you need connections to get a job, where you need connections to get a tender, where you need connections to get a house.

That’s not freedom. It saddens me that many communities across the Northern Cape are not free because of this. But Zuma’s ANC has now reached the end of its road, and they cannot deliver your freedom.

In a democracy, that’s where you come in. As voters, you have the most important job of all. Because you have the responsibility of using your vote to fire a government that doesn’t work for you and then hire one that will.

In 2006, the DA asked the people of Cape Town to do this – to give them a chance to prove what a difference a DA government can make. They said to the people: “If we let you down, then use your vote to fire us again. But at least give us a chance to show what we can do for you.”

The people gave us that chance. They put their trust in a DA government, and since then the DA has just carried on growing in Cape Town.

In 2009, we asked the same thing from the people of the Western Cape: “Just give us one chance to show what we can do for the province.” We won the Western Cape by a small margin in 2009, but four years later we won the province by a big margin.

Once you have experienced the DA difference in your municipality or province – once you have seen what a clean and efficient government can do for your community – you won’t go back to what you had before.

Where the DA governs, we never forget who hired us and we never forget who we serve. We are not perfect, and there are many things we’re working hard to be better at. But we know what we were hired to do, and we spend every single cent of public money on the people.

Next year you can make the same choice for Upington. The municipal election is your one chance to say: “No more corruption, no more poor service delivery – I’m voting for the kind of Freedom that I can use.”

I hope you give us the chance to prove to you that the DA is the only party that can deliver the Freedom you deserve. We will not let you down.

I thank you!

Issued by Mabine Seabe, Spokesperson to the DA Leader, 7 November 2015