Mmusi Maimane, leader of the official opposition Democratic Alliance says the ANC and country’s president Jacob Zuma in his speech during the weekend’s celebrations has demonstrated that the ruling party has reached “the point of no return”.
He says Zuma’s words were the tell-tale last gasp of a dying organisation. It is an out-of-touch and divided party that is unable to self-correct, and is past the point of no return.
Maimane says one would have – following the ANC’s results at the polls in August last year – expected a humble and introspective reflection on the past year, and a meaningful commitment to effect real and substantive internal change. “Rather, we were force-fed another rose-tinted ‘good story’ by a President who has overseen the party’s decimation over the past 7 years. While the rest of the country is looking forward, the ANC can only but fondly recall its former glories.”
The DA also noted how Zuma’s cronies celebrated in lavish style while the rest of the country had 9 million unemployed people who live in squalor. “We live in a deeply unfair and unequal society, where the colour of your skin still determines your chances of succeeding in life. And this is only worsened by the ANC who run a dishonest government, putting their friends first and the people of South Africa last… The people of South Africa do not trust the ANC anymore, and last year’s election results showed just that. After almost 23 years of democracy, words and empty rhetoric are simply not enough. Long-winded recitals of “good story” statistics do not create jobs or feed hungry South Africans.”
The DA says South Africa now needs bold and authentic leadership that will:
- Take South Africa forward;
- Have leadership that affirms constitutionalism, and fires leaders who do not uphold it;
- Have leadership that is focused on the economy, including a coherent plan to create work for our people;
- Have leadership that will govern well, focusing on delivering services to our people and not stealing money;
- Have leadership that offers a better plan for redress, which empowers all South Africans not just the ANC elite; and
- Have leadership committed to building a reconciled nation, where redress and economic development does not rob one race at the expense of another.
Zuma is none of these.
Maimane says the accelerating implosion of the ANC, coupled with the real example of positive difference that is being delivered by opposition-led governments across the country, holds the potential to redefine South African politics in the coming years. This means that the DA enters 2017 excited and ready for the potential ahead.
