We are leading the fight for a better SA

16 March 2015

Note to Editors: The following speech was delivered by DA Parliamentary Leader Mmusi Maimane MP, during an address to the Foreign Correspondents' Association of Southern Africa, at the Johannesburg Country Club, Milpark.

Just over two decades ago, Nelson Mandela became the first democratically elected President of South Africa.

That watershed moment in our history ushered in a period of hope and change.

Millions of South Africans were optimistic about the chance for a better life. 

South Africa was welcomed back into the international community with open arms, and shrugged off the pariah status it had developed under Apartheid.

The dreams of the women and men who fought for that moment is one that should inspire us all to fight on today. 

We believe South Africa has the potential to be a leader of the developing world, and that a day will come when the potential of our economy is unlocked by a Democratic Alliance-led government. In our vision, unemployment is steadily declining while economic growth is bolstered by policies that place education and job creation at the centre of our economy. 

Communities feel safe in the knowledge that they are protected by an incorruptible, well-trained and properly equipped police service. This allows parents to focus their energy on realising their dreams and, not fearing that their children are being corrupted through drug abuse and gangsterism.

Most importantly, the opportunities available to children will not be determined by the circumstances of their birth, but by their ambition and desire to realise them. Regardless of whether citizens live in Alexandra or Sandton, society is marked by freedom, fairness and opportunity under a government that puts the needs of the people first.

Unfortunately the country we find ourselves in today often lends itself to despair. 

Over the past year, we have borne witness to a President who has used his Office to attack the very foundations of our constitutional democracy, and demolish the pillars on which it stands.

In his campaign to escape accountability, he has publically denounced the authority of the Public Protector, decimated the leadership of the South African Revenue Services (SARS), the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (the Hawks) and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), and, just recently, manufactured parliamentary approval for his special advisor to head the country's Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).

All the while, on a more grassroots level, we remain inundated with daily stories of crime, corruption, unemployment and service delivery failure.

The people of this country have drawn the short straw under President Jacob Zuma's leadership, and continue to struggle under the harsh realities of a crumbling economy while the President and his patronage network serve their own narrow needs.

The ANC has lost its moral compass, and uses its majority in Parliament to undermine some of the most fundamental tenets of our Constitution, such as executive accountability to Parliament and the separation of powers.

When the President was allowed to stand up in the National Assembly and dismiss as mere suggestions the Public Protector's damning findings of how he personally benefitted from a R246 million upgrade to his Nkandla home, it became clear that he had forsaken the constitutional basis of our democracy, subverting it with his own approach of majority rule and patronage. 

And when an ANC majority in the Parliamentary Ad-Hoc Committee on Nkandla allowed the President to evade accountably, it was made clear that they are willing to protect one man above the people they were elected to serve. 

On that day they condoned corruption at all levels of government and betrayed their oath to be faithful to the Republic of South Africa.

We have faith, however, that the courts will find that the Public Protector's remedial actions are indeed enforceable. 

We believe an important precedent for this is about to be set in the DA's application for the appointment of the public broadcaster's CEO Hlaudi Motsoeneng to be declared irrational on the basis of Public Protector findings against him.

The President will pay for the undue benefits he received from the taxpayer funded upgrades to his private residence at Nkandla, including a swimming pool, cattle kraal, amphitheatre and tuck shop.

But while the President and his party may be able to brush off these issues in the interim, the South African public are growing increasingly tired of broken promises and service delivery failures while a small group of politically connected individuals get rich.

I spent the first month of this year travelling South Africa on a Power to the People Tour, to gauge the true state of the nation. While it is clear that millions of South Africans are facing significant challenges on a daily basis, there is still a sense of yearning for the democratic dream espoused by the late President Nelson Mandela.

Their yearning has underscored the DA's desire to lead the fight to hold the President to account, and rid our country of those who have crippled its ability to provide a better life for all.

It is for this reason that the DA relentlessly pursued the Spy Tapes that served as motivation to have the 783 charges of corruption, fraud and racketeering against the President dropped by the National Prosecuting Authority in 2009.

But after five years and six court cases, the DA was able to get hold of those tapes. Having reviewed them it is clear that the decision to drop the charges against the President was irrational and should be set aside.  

Today we expect the North Gauteng High Court to set a timeline for the review application to have those charges reinstated. The President is not above the law; we will not allow him to defeat the ends of justice.

Also before the courts today, is our application to review the constitutionality of legislation used to have police remove Members of Parliament from the Houses of Parliament.

While we do not condone the actions of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) when they disrupted the State of the Nation Address in February, the police should never be allowed to use brute force to remove Members of Parliament when their views to not accord with those of the Majority Party.

Finally, tomorrow we will be debating a motion of no confidence in the President so that South Africans can reflect on how his administration continues to rob our country of its potential.

In the context of the constant reminders of how our government is failing our country, it is difficult not to become cynical.

But I am here with a message of hope and optimism, for while it is clear that the President has given up on South Africa, our people have not.

Change is coming to our political landscape. 

Since 1994, the ANC has lost just over 800,000 votes. The 2014 election was their worst showing yet. In contrast to this, the Democratic Alliance gained a million votes from 2009 to 2014 alone.

The time will come, sooner or later, when President Zuma is no longer in charge.

Moreover, the time will come when the ANC is swept from power by a wave of public dissatisfaction.

When that time comes, the DA will be there with a tangible plan to lift our country from the state of despair it finds itself in, and restore the dignity of this great nation.

In our Alternative Budget presented in February, we showed how a DA government would cut the wasteful and fruitless expenditure that has ballooned under President Zuma. We would cut the exorbitant cost of a bloated and ineffective cabinet.

Instead of raising taxes to reduce the deficit, we would drastically reduce the amount of money lost through corruption in public procurement.

By raising sin taxes, the fuel levy and the electricity levy, Minister of Finance, Nhlanhla Nene, is balancing the budget on the backs of the poor by driving up cost of living for those who can least afford it.

We must rather invest in small businesses and education, and empower those who rely on social grants to become active participants in the economy. The route out of poverty is through realizing the potential of our economy by creating jobs. Social welfare spending only serves to address the symptoms of our weakened economy, not the causes.

In the Western Cape we have seen how the DA can successfully implement policies that cut out corruption and deliver the services that citizens require.

The ANC has tried their best to criticise the DA in the Western Cape, resorting to cheap and sometimes nasty tricks to get headlines. But the facts speak for themselves.

The average person in the Western Cape has better access to basic services than in any one of the ANC run provinces.

Census 2011 shows that 99% of households in the Western Cape have access to piped water, 93.4% have access to electricity and 90.5% have access to flush toilets. This is the highest access in the country.

In fact, the President's own Management Performance Assessment Tool (MPAT) scored the Western Cape highest of SA's provinces on all 4 indicators: Strategic Management; Governance and accountability; Human resource and systems management; and Financial management.

In the 2016 Local Government Elections, the people of South Africa will be given an opportunity to extend the successes of the Western Cape to new frontiers in the country's major metros. 

In Johannesburg, Tshwane and Nelson Mandela Bay we have seen ANC support decline from one election to the next, while the DA is steadily rising. 

In Johannesburg, our economic capital, the ANC has lost a quarter of its support base since 2004, while the DA has grown its electorate by 63% up to 2014. The ANC now barely has a majority with just 52%.

In Tshwane the ANC has lost 18% of its voters in the last decade, while the DA has grown its support base by 20%, driving the ANC below the 50% mark.

And finally, in Nelson Mandela Bay the DA has grown its support by 89% over the past 10 years with the ANC losing 30% of those once loyal to the party. A mere 8% now separates us from the Majority Party in the city that bears Madiba's name.

The metros are in reach. There are those who doubted our ability to win Cape Town, yet today we govern both the city and the Western Cape with a majority that is ever increasing.

The winds of change are blowing in South Africa once again, and that wind will deliver a government that will unlock the full potential of our people and restore our position as a country that is a beacon of freedom and constitutional democracy.

In the midst of our despair, I remain unashamedly optimistic. 

The values of our democracy are sound, and the spirit of our people undefeatable.

But our people deserve a government that will deliver on the dream of Nelson Mandela.

That is the government the Democratic Alliance aspires to be.

I thank you. 

Statement issued by Mmusi Maimane MP, DA Parliamentary Leader, March 16 2015

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