Tlokwe is ready for the DA difference

29 August 2015

Note to Editors: The following remarks were delivered by the DA Leader in Tlokwe, North West. The Leader is in the Province on the national Vision 2029 Tour. He was joined by the DA National Spokesperson, Refiloe Nt’sekhe MPL, and DA Provincial Leader, Joe McGluwa MP.

Good day, my fellow South Africans,

It’s great to be in the North-West Province today. And it’s great to be here in Tlokwe. 

I’m truly excited to stand here today, because Tlokwe is a place of great potential; it is a place that is ready for change. It is a place where thousands of people have already said: Enough. No more poor service delivery. No more waste. No more corruption.

Tlokwe is ready for a change of government.

In the DA, we speak about the Big Five: the five big municipalities that are in our sights for next year’s Local Government Election.

We have identified five local governments where we have a real chance to either increase our lead or to take over from the ANC. Most of the talk until now has been about Cape Town, Nelson Mandela Bay, Tshwane and Johannesburg. But the fifth big municipality that we’re aiming for is this very municipality here in Tlokwe.

This is a municipality where the ANC’s support over the past decade has been dropping as fast as the DA’s support has been climbing. Those two lines on the graph are almost ready to cross, and with that will come a bright new chapter for the people of Tlokwe.

You see, all the DA needs is one chance to show what a caring, clean and efficient government can do. One chance.

In 2006, the DA gave the ANC their very first taste of defeat when we won the City of Cape Town from them. This wasn’t by much, and we had to put together a coalition government with several small parties. The ANC didn’t like this, and they tried to break up our coalition, but of course they couldn’t.

And that’s all we needed – one chance to show the people of Cape Town what a difference a DA government can make. And we made sure we used that chance.

The DA in Cape Town immediately appointed the right people to crucial jobs. No jobs for pals. No cadre deployments. No payback for loyalty. Just competent and committed people to do important jobs.

The DA in Cape Town immediately began spending all public money on public service delivery, and particularly in its poorest areas. Today, Cape Town has the highest access to water, electricity and flush toilets in the country.

The DA in Cape Town immediately put an end to corruption and wasteful spending. Today, Cape Town is the best-run metro with the highest number of clean audits in the country.

In less than a decade, the DA turned Cape Town around. And it didn’t end there. In 2009, three years after we won Cape Town, the rest of the Western Cape voted for a DA government too. The rest of the Province wanted the DA difference too.

Again, all we needed was one chance to show the people of the Western Cape what we could do in government, and the province hasn’t looked back since then. We grew our support in the province even further in the 2014 election, and you can bet we’ll do the same in the City of Cape Town next year.

But news travels, and now there are many other places that also want what the DA has done for the people of Cape Town and the Western Cape.

In last year’s elections, we pushed the ANC below 50% in Nelson Mandela Bay and Tshwane, and we brought them very close to 50% in Johannesburg and, of course, right here in Tlokwe, where they managed only 51.8% of the vote – a full 20% down from what they got in 2004.

The days of an ANC majority in Tlokwe are coming to an end.

In 2013, even the ANC council here said: “No more poor governance” when it passed a vote of no confidence in its own mayor. This opened the door for a temporary DA-led council, and for several months Tlokwe got a taste of the DA difference.

Under a DA Mayor, Tlokwe saw big clean-up campaigns, key vacancies in the municipality were filled and the RDP house application process was made public to prevent the kind of housing list corruption that had been going on for years in the municipality.

The DA Mayor even launched an entrepreneur scholarship, where 14 students were sent to the university on an entrepreneurial course. Unfortunately, back under the ANC Mayor, this entire project was abandoned and those students were left stranded.

The fact is, under an ANC council, Tlokwe has gone backwards. Every year, millions of Rands get underspent or misspent by the municipality. And any debate to expose these issues is quickly shut down by the ANC Speaker in Council.

This city is desperate for change.

Tlokwe has been run into the ground by cadre deployment. It is desperate for a capable and proffesional local government that will inspire confidence, attract investors and turn Tlokwe into a thriving regional economic hub.

This city is desperate to see small businesses start up and grow, with the support of a caring local government, so that its people don’t have to leave Tlokwe to find work.

This city is desperate to put years and years of water infrastraucture neglect behind it so that all the people of Tlokwe can enjoy access to clean water, as guaranteed by our Constitution.

Tlokwe is desperate for change, and the good news is: the DA is coming. We’ve done this before – we brought the DA difference to a municipality in Gauteng called Midvaal, and we can do it again here in Tlokwe.

We know it won’t be a smooth ride. The ANC will do everything it can – legal or illegal – to hold on to power. In fact, we’ve already seen many examples of just how far they are prepared to go.

In the 2013 by-elections that followed the vote of no confidence in the ANC Mayor, they bussed in thousands of voters from outside Tlokwe to come and vote in the contested wards. And if they were prepared to commit electoral fraud once, they will do it again.

During the same by-elections, there were wide-spread reports of state-funded food parcels and blankets handed out by the ANC in these wards. We probably haven’t seen the last of this attempted vote-buying either. Although they should know by now that you can’t wish away years of poor service delivery with a food parcel.

Their latest attempt to prevent Tlokwe from slipping from their hands involves plans to change the municipal boundaries of the city in order to weaken the DA’s support. These proposed plans to merge the municipalities of Tlokwe and Ventersdorp have one goal only, and that is to prevent a DA victory in Tlokwe.

We will fight these merger plans with everything we have, because if there’s one thing that the people of Tlokwe deserve, then it’s the chance to vote for the government of their choice in a free and fair election.

But we’re not the only ones who think this merger is a bad idea. There are even factions within the ANC itself here in Tlokwe who want to prevent it from going ahead. They know that, once saddled with Ventersdorp’s problems, Tlokwe’s challenges will double.

Across the board, people are coming over to the DA’s point-of-view. Last month, the DA here in Tlokwe welcomed several members of the EFF to its ranks. These are people who helped establish the EFF in the province, but they have come to realise that there is only one party that can bring meaningful change to South Africa, and that party is the DA.

The DA has a vision for South Africa. We call this Vision 2029, because it describes what South Africa could look like after ten years of a DA-led government, starting with winning control of the Union Buildings in 2019.

It describes a society where a child born in Ikageng has the same chance to build a future as a child born in Sandton. Where schools are safe places of learning, and where every citizen has access to world class healthcare.

Our Vision 2029 describes a South Africa with a growing economy. A South Africa with a government that supports entrepreneurs, and where the creation of jobs is the number one priority.

This is a South Africa built on the core values of Freedom, Fairness and Opportunity for all its people. And it all starts with a DA local government.

Give us one chance to show the DA difference. If we disappoint you, then use your vote to fire us. But first give us that chance. Do what the people of Cape Town and the people of the Western Cape did. 

We can only make a real difference to your lives in Tlokwe once we’re in government here. It is now up to you to vote for the kind of government you want.

Issued by the DA, August 29 2015