“But falling into that trap — becoming complacent about which party governs this province — will spell disaster for the Western Cape, just like it has done everywhere else.
“I have news for any voter in the Western Cape who has forgotten how important it is to vote for the DA. Not only can this province collapse into chaos just like the rest of South Africa if you don’t vote for the DA, but the first alarming signs of decline have already arrived.”
He mentioned Knysna as an example of a town that was governed by the DA but due to its supporters not turning out to vote, the party lost power.
“Like all governments with outright DA majorities, Knysna was once a showpiece for stability and good governance, but things changed dramatically after the 2021 local government elections, when complacency caused DA voters in Knysna to stay at home instead of turning out to vote.”
He said as a result, the DA fell marginally below the 50% mark required to form a stable majority government in the municipality. That margin opened the door for “a nightmare” to be unleashed on the people of Knysna.
Steenhuisen said within months of taking power, “the coalition of corruption” between the ANC, EFF and the Patriotic Alliance unleashed looting and destruction the likes of which Knysna had never seen before.
Residents who were used to living in a clean town when a DA majority was in government, suddenly found mountains of filth wherever they went and residents who never thought twice about drinking tap water suddenly discovered that, for weeks, they had been drinking water from a reservoir in which a decomposing body had been floating.
“When the coalition of corruption finally got around to removing the corpse from the drinking water, it was so badly decayed that its arm broke off in the reservoir.”
Steenhuisen said all this happened because people split the vote that previously went to the DA among dozens of small parties and allowed “opportunistic political mercenaries” to divide them.
Steenhuisen said in the coming elections, the biggest enemy of progress in the Western Cape was not a desperate ANC trying to cling to power but complacency, and political opportunists in small parties seeking to exploit that complacency to line their own pockets.
“Instead of fighting to fix the eight ANC provinces that have been smashed to pieces, the political mercenaries in parties like the Patriotic Alliance, Rise Mzansi, Good and the National Coloured Congress are obsessed with trying to break the one DA province that works.
“We have to ask ourselves: why are these parties not campaigning in ANC provinces? Why are they running around trying to break the one DA province that, over the past five years, has created four out of every five net new jobs in the whole South Africa?”
He said it was because the province was the last one with anything left to loot.
TimesLIVE
Steenhuisen warns Western Cape DA voters against complacency
Image: Eugene Coetzee
DA leader John Steenhuisen has warned party supporters against complacency by not going out in large numbers to vote for the party in the May 29 elections.
Steenhuisen was addressing the party’s Western Cape election manifesto launch in Paarl on Saturday.
Citing high unemployment, poor service delivery and corruption in the eight provinces not governed by the DA, Steenhuisen said for millions of citizens, the story of South Africa has become one of despair.
“But fortunately that’s not the whole story. For while the eight ANC-led provinces crumble, there is one place left in this country where the hope that we all shared for a better future shines ever more brightly,” he said.
“That place of hope, is this DA-led Western Cape province. The Western Cape of Good Hope. Hope is not the same as perfection, and all of us still have a lot more work to do to deliver dignity and opportunity to every resident of this province.”
Steenhuisen said people who have lived in the province for the past 15 years may take for granted the security provided by the years of the party’s good governance, and be tempted to believe that the total collapse experienced in other provinces could never happen in the Western Cape.
Court finds ANC in contempt over DA's cadre deployment records request
“But falling into that trap — becoming complacent about which party governs this province — will spell disaster for the Western Cape, just like it has done everywhere else.
“I have news for any voter in the Western Cape who has forgotten how important it is to vote for the DA. Not only can this province collapse into chaos just like the rest of South Africa if you don’t vote for the DA, but the first alarming signs of decline have already arrived.”
He mentioned Knysna as an example of a town that was governed by the DA but due to its supporters not turning out to vote, the party lost power.
“Like all governments with outright DA majorities, Knysna was once a showpiece for stability and good governance, but things changed dramatically after the 2021 local government elections, when complacency caused DA voters in Knysna to stay at home instead of turning out to vote.”
He said as a result, the DA fell marginally below the 50% mark required to form a stable majority government in the municipality. That margin opened the door for “a nightmare” to be unleashed on the people of Knysna.
Steenhuisen said within months of taking power, “the coalition of corruption” between the ANC, EFF and the Patriotic Alliance unleashed looting and destruction the likes of which Knysna had never seen before.
Residents who were used to living in a clean town when a DA majority was in government, suddenly found mountains of filth wherever they went and residents who never thought twice about drinking tap water suddenly discovered that, for weeks, they had been drinking water from a reservoir in which a decomposing body had been floating.
“When the coalition of corruption finally got around to removing the corpse from the drinking water, it was so badly decayed that its arm broke off in the reservoir.”
Steenhuisen said all this happened because people split the vote that previously went to the DA among dozens of small parties and allowed “opportunistic political mercenaries” to divide them.
Steenhuisen said in the coming elections, the biggest enemy of progress in the Western Cape was not a desperate ANC trying to cling to power but complacency, and political opportunists in small parties seeking to exploit that complacency to line their own pockets.
“Instead of fighting to fix the eight ANC provinces that have been smashed to pieces, the political mercenaries in parties like the Patriotic Alliance, Rise Mzansi, Good and the National Coloured Congress are obsessed with trying to break the one DA province that works.
“We have to ask ourselves: why are these parties not campaigning in ANC provinces? Why are they running around trying to break the one DA province that, over the past five years, has created four out of every five net new jobs in the whole South Africa?”
He said it was because the province was the last one with anything left to loot.
TimesLIVE
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