/ 23 February 2014

It’s time for change, says DA before manifesto address

DA leader Helen Zille and parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko.
DA leader Helen Zille and parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko.

Prior to Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille delivering the main address, the opposition party used its young voices on Sunday to lead the charge to sell its election manifesto to the people at the Polokwane Showgrounds in Limpopo. 

Deputy federal chairperson Makashule Gana, parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko, youth leader Mbali Ntuli and Gauteng's premier candidate Mmusi Maimane took the lead in preparing supporters for the official opposition's promises.

"Even the sky is blue. It means the DA has arrived," said Maimane, who was the day's programme director.

"Wherever you are in this country, South Africa today is at crossroads. It's time for change."

"Together for change, together for jobs" is the DA's slogan for this year's elections, with a promise to create what the party calls "real jobs" instead of temporary public works jobs that the ANC government has relied on in the past five years.

'Unemployed people'
Gana, who calls Limpopo home, led the charge, highlighting the challenges that the province faces because of poor governance.

"When I left Limpopo in 2005, there were limited job opportunities, the situation has gotten worse. More and more energetic young people with potential are sitting at home doing nothing," he said.

"This administration has failed to bring hope to the millions of unemployed people of our nation."

Focusing on former premier Cassel Mathale's government, Gana said Limpopo has lost the little dignity it had before 2009.

"When people talk about Limpopo, it's no longer 'Africa's Eden', it's corruption, tender fraud and collapsing bridges. The monument of corruption is not only in Nkandla; not far from here we have a place called Tender Park, where people who looted the coffers of this province reside."

War against corruption
Mazibuko also continued on the war against corruption "from Guptagate to Zumaville".

Calling the DA "a blue wave that will wash out corruption", she said in two months' time "a sea of blue" would bring change to South Africa.

Mazibuko issued a stern warning to corrupt people, repeating that "the DA is coming after you".

"If you're stealing from South Africans, if you're running away from answering 783 corruption charges, if you cannot do the job you're appointed to do, the DA is coming after you," she said.

"You cannot claim to be serving South Africans with one hand, when your other hand is stuck deeply in the cookie jar. Because when you steal from South Africans you're making poor people even poorer."

Mazibuko said the DA wanted to change South Africa into a better country, "a South Africa where politicians serve the people and not themselves. Sadly this is not the story of president Jacob Zuma's administration."

This new corrupt-free South Africa that can create "real jobs" will however not happen without the voters' support, said Gana.

"This change will not fall from the sky. The change will not come from burning clinics during protests, this change will only happen if we vote the DA on the seventh of May".