DA unveils ‘rescue plan for SA’ on lawns of Union Buildings

The DA on Saturday launched its election manifesto on the lawns of the Union Buildings, from which President Cyril Ramaphosa runs his government. 

This, the party’s leader John Steenhuisen said, was intended to send out a clear message: that the ANC’s time was up, and the DA was ready to take power.

Steenhuisen told thousands of DA supporters that, for the first time since 1994, it was likely the ANC’s support would dip below 50%.

The party’s promises in its manifesto were therefore not just “pie in the sky”, but rather achievable goals the incoming DA government would realise, he said.

“Our meeting here today is no accident. Our meeting here today is a signal of intent. The DA is launching our 2024 election manifesto from the Union Buildings to send a clear message that in this election we are in it to win it.”

He said the DA was launching its manifesto there to show it wanted to rescue the “Union Buildings from the clutches of a corrupt government and restore them to their rightful place as a symbol of pride for all South Africans”.

The DA, if it forms a government, promises to create 2-million new jobs; end water- and load-shedding; halve violent crime, including murder, attempted murder and gender-based violence; crush corruption by abolishing cadre deployment and replacing it with merit-based appointments; establish a capable state that delivers for all; lift 6-million people out of poverty; triple the number of grade 4 pupils who can read for meaning; and ensure quality health care for all, irrespective of economic status. 

This is the message the DA will be taking to communities as it criss-crosses the country on its campaign trail.

“Unlike most other parties contesting this election, the DA’s rescue plan for South Africa is not pie in the sky,” said Steenhuisen.

“Frankly, it is easy for parties that have no track record in government to get on a stage and read out a list of impossible promises they know can never be delivered. But South Africans are tired of empty promises. They are tired of hearing about bullet trains when the trains they used to take no longer run.”

A confident Steenhuisen said that in all the other post-1994 elections everyone knew the ANC would win, and the only question was by how much. 

As a result, in every previous election, the DA’s primary task had been to consolidate the strongest possible opposition to the ANC “to prevent the worst from happening to our beloved country”. 

“But all of that changes today. Today, we embark [on] a new path, and towards a new objective,” he said.

“In this election, the DA is not going to oppose the ANC. 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%.” 

The ANC, he said, was a party in “terminal decline” that was being “ripped to shreds from all sides”. 

“The ANC was already on its knees when Jacob Zuma’s MK party entered the fray. As we speak, MK is devouring millions of ANC votes, he said.

“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 [more than] 15,000 criminals just to keep Zuma out of prison. That is why I am proud today to launch the DA’s rescue plan for South Africa, our manifesto for the historic 2024 election.”