South Africa's progress since 1994 has stalled: Maimane

The progress South Africa has made since 1994 has stalled, Democratic Alliance (DA) spokesman Mmusi Maimane said on Saturday.

"We don't need more people on grants; we need more people in jobs earning a better future for themselves and their families," Maimane said.

"A grant can help you to survive; but a job can improve your life. The ANC cannot fix these problems; because they are part of the problem."

He was speaking at a meeting with traditional leaders in the Dr JS Moroka municipality in Mpumalanga on Saturday afternoon.

The time has come to bring effective African National Congress members into the DA because things are changing in the country, he added.

"People are becoming more and more frustrated... there is a wave of strikes happening at mines across the country," he said.

Maimane said violent service delivery protests are happening across the country while President Jacob Zuma was engaged in a "daily battle with [expelled ANC Youth League leader] Julius Malema and other factions in the ANC."

On Thursday, DA leader Helen Zille said that warring factions on the "sinking ship" of the ANC posed an impending disaster the country would need to deal with.

"The divisions at the heart of government are the root cause of ungovernability (sic)," she said at the Cape Town Press Club.

Zille said the country needed a convergence in the political centre as none of the existing political parties, as currently constituted, could credibly offer this on its own.

Maimane said that the ANC broke the promise of 1994 and many members of the ruling party watch as South Africa is being torn apart by rival factions and personal interests.

"For some years, government delivered. Life did get better for awhile," he said.

"The ANC has taken us as far as it can. We now need something new to deliver the full promise of 1994."