Ready for lift-off: Steenhuisen on moonshot pact

DA leader John Steenhuisen has dismissed concerns about his party’s commitment to the moonshot pact and has remained firm about the decision to rally behind a pact to unseat the governing party.

He says he made no mistake when he outlined the party’s vision at its federal congress in April when he spoke at length about the need to rescue the country and the importance of the 2024 election.

“Where we achieve a giant leap forward by removing the ANC from power and replacing it with a new pact government composed of like-minded opposition parties.”

However, despite expressed disdain at the DA’s continued use of the term “moonshot” in the pact’s branding by interested coalition partners, Steenhuisen maintains the idea remains relevant to the party.

“Just as with the original Moonshot, when humans achieved the seemingly impossible by sending a man to the moon for the first time, there were a lot of naysayers,” said Steenhuisen.

The party leader criticised detractors who shot down the idea from its inception, saying that they were about to be proven wrong.

“They said that opposition parties are too egotistical to get around the same table. They said that we would never be able to put aside petty politics in order to put South Africa first. The naysayers were wrong,” he said.

The grouping, which consists of the FF Plus, IFP, ActionSA, SNP and UIM, will hold its national convention in Kempton Park this week and Steenhuisen said holding the meeting at the same venue where the Codesa negotiations successfully mapped a way forward for the country at a time of great crisis was a monumental move.

“This week, we have an opportunity to do so once again. To do what South Africans have always done best: get around the table, talk to each other, and rise above adversity.”