This year’s election is about our future, not our past

9 April 2016

Note to Editors: The following remarks were made today by the DA Leader, Mmusi Maimane MP, at a registration station in Alexandra, Johannesburg. Maimane was joined by DA Mayoral Candidate for the City of Johannesburg,Herman Mashaba.

This weekend, all across the country, millions of South Africans will register to vote in this year’s Local Government Elections, and in doing so will secure their right to shape the future of our country. 

In the very year we celebrate the 20th anniversary of our Constitution – the supreme law of our land and the lifeblood of our democracy - South Africans, young and old, will exercise this constitutional right – a right that holds so much power.

Fellow South Africans, I don’t need to tell you that the leadership of our country, and the governing ANC, are taking our country backwards. It is self-evident for all to see. 

We see it in our unemployment rate, where almost 1 in every 3 South Africans cannot find a job.  

We see it in increasing levels of poverty across our land. 

We see it in our public service, where basic services have become a luxury and corruption is rampant. 

And we see it in the way the President treats our constitution like a pamphlet that can be violated in every way possible. 

Madiba’s dream of 1994 is fast slipping away, as Jacob Zuma and his ANC continue to make themselves and those connect to them rich, while millions of South Africans suffer.

It is no wonder many have given up hope. Hopelessness is fast spreading across our towns and cities. Almost daily I speak to ordinary South Africans who tell me they are not registering to vote because their vote won’t change anything. They have lost all hope not just in our country, but our future. 

I want to appeal to every South African, and say to them – there is hope for our future – and that hope lies in your hands this year. That is not just a nice sounding cliché, but it is the simple truth.

We need to vote for change, the change that will build a South Africa for all. The ANC has given up on that hope and dream.

Today I had the privilege of joining Anna Ramashu, a 22 year old resident of Alexandra, who registered to vote at her local polling station for the very first time. Anna was born in 1994 - the very year we transitioned into democracy. Yet, like so many of the born free generation, Anna’s future is being compromised by the ANC government. But Anna has not given up hope. Anna told me she wants to vote for a South Africa she can be proud of. She has realised that she needs to vote to help create the South Africa she wants to live in.

I want to appeal to those who have given up hope and plan to not register to vote in this year’s election. Your vote matters, and your vote can be the difference between a new, fresh, clean and citizen orientated government, or 5 more years of the same. Here in Gauteng, the ANC barely won a majority with just 53% of the vote in the last election. The stakes have never been higher.

You vote is your power. You can choose to vote for the political party you believe is best equipped to bring about a better, safer and more prosperous South African for all who live in it. 

That is democracy – and that is the constitutional dream we ushered in two decades ago. 

While the ANC is on the decline, the DA is growing in each and every election. And that is why come Election Day this year, we will see a power shift in Nelson Mandela Bay, in Tshwane, in the City of Johannesburg, and the DA on the rise in all municipalities across South Africa. 

This weekend, we call upon all freedom loving South Africans to register to vote for change, and to join us next Friday when we will mobilize South Africans to march for change and to remove Jacob Zuma. We will be marching in both the City of Johannesburg and Nelson Mandela Bay. 

That power shift begins with registering today. Registering to win, and registering to bring about a South Africa where the values of Freedom, Fairness and Opportunity are experienced by every South African.

Issued by the DA, April 9 2016