Mbali Ntuli makes a last plea to DA delegates to vote for her
DA leader hopeful Mbali Ntuli has made one last plea for the delegates at the party's congress to vote for her vision of a “kind, strong and fair” party.
Ntuli is going head-to-head with interim party leader John Steenhuisen, who is a firm favourite to retain his position.
Following a long heated campaign, both Ntuli and Steenhuisen were on Saturday given one last chance to convince delegates of their vision for the DA.
The party is holding its conference virtually this year due to Covid-19 regulations.
It was forced to go to an early election after a dismal election performance last year which led to the shock resignations of party leader Mmusi Maimane and chairperson Athol Trollip.
“I ran my campaign showing that what I want for this party is for everybody to feel included in all our decision-making in the way that the party is able to negotiate our shared values.
“I don't think that disagreements or seeing things differently is a bad thing. The idea of diversity as a party of our principles is the one that should be cherished the most as the DA,” said Ntuli.
She said she wanted to move the DA to a place where everybody feels that they have equal right to say where they believe the party should be going.
Ntuli said the DA only exists to try to win votes to show the people what the party can do.
“I believe that the best thing about us is that we have good people. So many of us work so incredibly hard for this party, devoting our time and our energy away from families, because the cause that we are fighting for is the one that will make sure that all South Africans are able to live a prosperous life,” said Ntuli.
She said the DA had good governance where it was in power and wanted it to leverage things everywhere else.
“We need a new way of politics, a way that shows that we are serious about taking this government that has impunity and looting and corruption out of office,” said Ntuli.
She said she wanted the DA to give resources to young people using its youth and women structures.
Ntuli said she was asking the DA delegates to give her a chance to show that she could be in every community despite the failures from last year's elections.
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