DA leader John Steenhuisen. (Darren Stewart/Gallo Images)
Democratic Alliance leader John Steenhuisen has delivered a seven-point plan while boldly claiming that the party was “in it to win it” in the 2024 elections.
While delivering his speech on Saturday, Steenhuisen announced that the party had received a request from the ANC for more time to deliver its cadre deployment minutes, which are due on Monday.
Earlier this week, the constitutional court ruled that the governing party must produce all relevant records relating to its cadre deployment committee, dating back more than a decade, within five working days.
The ANC “came crawling back to the DA, begging us to give them more time”, according to Steenhuisen.
“I’d like to take this opportunity to respond to [President Cyril] Ramaphosa and the ANC directly,” he added.
“No, you cannot get more time… You have wasted South Africa’s time for long enough. You will comply with the constitutional court’s order by handing over these records by 5pm on Monday.”
Steenhuisen threatened that, should the ANC fail to meet the apex court’s ruling, it will use the precedent set in former president Jacob Zuma’s state capture case by approaching the court for a contempt order.
Zuma’s case landed him with a prison sentence — a fate Steenhuisen suggested the ANC’s top brass could also face.
“The ANC is so desperate to hide Ramaphosa’s cadre secrets that they are now threatening to trigger a constitutional crisis to protect him — just like they did with Zuma,” he said.
The records will reveal some of the decisions made by the ANC during Ramaphosa’s tenure as the head of the party’s deployment committee.
In his 11-page speech, Steenhuisen said that, unlike some of the promises made by his opponents, the DA would deliver on solemn pledges, not populist ones. “In this election, the DA is not going to oppose the ANC,” he said.
“In this election, the DA is going to defeat the ANC. For the first time in our democratic history, support for the ANC is set to crash well below 50%. It is a party in terminal decline, being ripped to shreds from all sides.”
Steenhuisen, who delivered his speech at the lawns of the Union Buildings in Pretoria, said the ANC was already on its knees when Zuma’s uMkhonto Wesizwe (MK) Party entered the fray. The MK Party is devouring millions of ANC votes, he claimed.
“And the ANC only has one man to blame for its demise, Cyril Ramaphosa, who, for decades, did everything in his power to enable and protect Zuma. Ramaphosa even freed over 15 000 criminals just to keep Zuma out of prison. The very same Zuma is now helping to evict Ramaphosa from the Union Buildings behind me.”
Steenhuisen added that the demise of the ANC has opened the door for the DA to achieve what was once considered unthinkable — to enter national government. “In this election, for the first time ever, the DA has a clear path to victory,” he said.
Steenhuisen’s speech heavily focused on criticising the ANC and Ramaphosa’s state of the nation address, during which the president introduced the allegory of Tintswalo in an effort to demonstrate gains made by the party to improve South Africa during its 30 years in government.
The DA leader announced the party’s seven pillars — its key priorities for rescuing South Africa — adding that these form the anchor tenant in a new multi-party government.
These priorities include creating two million new jobs; ending load-shedding and water-shedding; halving the violent crime rate; crushing corruption by abolishing cadre deployment in favour of merit-based appointments; lifting six million people out of poverty; tripling the number of grade four learners who can read for meaning; and ensuring quality healthcare for all.
“Unlike most other parties contesting this election, the DA’s rescue plan for South Africa is not pie in the sky,” Steenhuisen said.
He also criticised Ramaphosa for having used a “handful” of successful young people to try and defend his claim that the lives of South Africans had improved under the ANC-led government.
“But the cold, hard truth is that young people in this country do not succeed because of the ANC,” Steenhuisen said.
“They succeed in spite of it. If Ramaphosa wanted to honestly reflect the lives of young people in this country, then for every three employed people, he would show us the seven who have never had a job in their lives.”
Steenhuisen added that the 2024 election is not yet about truly fulfilling the dream of 1994, but was instead about the survival of a shared South African dream.
Focusing on Ramaphosa’s state of the nation speech, Steenhuisen criticised the president for having excluded the coloured, Indian and white community in his illustration of governments achievements.
Creating millions more jobs, ending load-shedding and abolishing the cadre deployment was the only way to keep the South African dream alive, he said.
Characteric of the DA, the party leader highlighted its clean governance record in the Western Cape to demonstrate how it would lead the country.
The DA’s programme in the City of Cape Town to reduce load-shedding, provide the cleanest drinking water and the best sanitation services in the country, signalled the party’s seriousness to rescue South Africa, Steenhuisen said.
“Recently, DA-led Cape Town rolled out a ground-breaking new initiative that enables any household with solar panels and a bi-directional meter to become a ‘prosumer’ by selling electricity back into the grid,” he noted.
“This same policy sits at the heart of our manifesto’s solution to load-shedding for the whole country. Mark my words: The DA’s work in Cape Town is going to lead to an energy revolution and it will all be thanks to the implementation of DA policies.”