Fight is on for Change and Jobs in Gauteng

Note to editors: The following statement was delivered by Mmusi Maimane, DA Gauteng Premier candidate, at a press conference on campaign strategy and the provincial manifesto in Johannesburg today.

With 44 days to go until Election 2014 the DA is embarking on a mass mobilization programme in Gauteng starting with Saturday's launch of the Pledge to the People, our provincial manifesto.

We know the race in Gauteng will be close. We also know after months of campaigning that the majority of Gauteng residents want change. 

Thanks to the immense effort from our structures even the ANC's own polls now show they can go under 50%. We have an historic chance to vote in new leadership in Gauteng. We can change the course of history in favour of clean government and job creation. 

But we are in for the fight of our lives from forces who want to keep things the way they are. 

On one side we have the Nkandla denialists, the good-storytellers and the e-tolling apologists. They are the people who say the President is clean when we know the opposite is the truth. These are the people want to spin us stories about how everything is great when unemployment is affecting every single one of us, directly or indirectly. And these are the people who say we must shut up and pay e-tolls when we know this is an unjust system we must fight or all be poorer. These are the people who report to corrupt political bosses but now want to sell us hope and change in Gauteng. 

In the other corner we have the DA which is the only party contesting this election in Gauteng with an unmatched delivery record in provincial government. Cut corruption and create jobs - we have walked the talk that nobody else contesting this election has.

Make no mistake the enemies of change will stop at nothing.

But my message to the majority of Gauteng residents who want to see change that brings jobs and clean government is simple.

This is your fight too. Together we can win this fight for change, and we can win this fight for jobs. But only if every single person in Gauteng who is committed to change shows up on Election Day to fight for this change.

On Saturday we launch the Pledge to the People. This is the policy platform on which I am running for Gauteng Premier. The product of immense work from the DA in Gauteng, the Pledge is the most progressive set of policies ever offered to the people of this province in a general election.

The core offer we make in our Pledge to the People is:

- Entrepreneurs create Jobs - We will support and subsidize entrepreneurs to lead job creation in Gauteng

- Cut Corruption - We will open tender committees to the public, introduce a new Ministerial Handbook for Gauteng and pass a law preventing officials from doing business with government

- Fight E-tolls - We are taking the fight against the E-Tolling Act all the way to the ConCourt. But we must win at the Ballot Box to call a referendum in which every Gauteng resident can vote directly against e-tolling

- Urban Land Reform - 30 years after the Apartheid government said blacks can only lease land we still don't own it. Our plan is to roll out title deeds so that people can own and invest in their state-subsidized houses at a rate never seen before.

- Fight Drugs and Crime - We will pass a law putting Local Action Committees front and centre in the war on drugs; evict druglords from all public property and make Gauteng's cities safe places to live and do business

- Education for Jobs - Public schools must offer quality education and empower our kids as digital citizens ready to enter the economy

- World-class Healthcare - We will put the best leadership in charge of public hospitals and eliminate long queues and poor service

With 44 days to go we are ramping up our mobilization efforts to make change a reality in Gauteng.

Our programme starts with the Pledge to the People launch at the Ellis Park Arena on Saturday, where thousands are expected to attend. This will lead straight into focused mobilization in each region of Gauteng culminating in mass demonstrations in support of jobs and clean government.

We will also be focusing on - 

- Launching our final phase of television commercials that take the policy fight to our opponents

- Painting Gauteng blue with the highest number of street-poll posters ever rolled out by a challenger in a provincial election

- An intensive online campaign including adverts, donations and townhalls

We know from our campaigning that the fight is still within the people of Gauteng to bring about change. In this election voters have a choice between job creation and clean government in Gauteng or 5 more years of corruption and unemployment under Jacob Zuma's ANC. 

Issued by the DA, March 25 2014

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