We need change that builds one South Africa

The DA recently kicked off its campaign for next year’s elections. In front of a large and festive crowd at Johannesburg’s Mary Fitzgerald Square, we set out our vision for a South Africa freed from the suffocating yoke of this failed  and put back on the road to prosperity, inclusivity and safety. We sketched a country that dealt openly and effectively with the wounds of its past and embraced the power of unity to unlock its huge potential.

Hard as that is to imagine today, this is a South Africa we once all thought possible. Two decades ago almost every South African believed that we would succeed in building a united country pursuing one common goal. But so much has gone wrong since then that it is hard to even remember what this belief felt like.

Complacency, indifference and greed have poisoned our government and this has all but destroyed our hope for a better future. The South Africa we see today bears no resemblance to the country we imagined in 1994. As we now stumble from downgrade to downgrade, as we’re told of further downward-revised growth forecasts, as we grapple with almost 10 million people who can’t find employment and as we come to terms with crime stats that confirm our worst fears, it is clear we have lost our way. Our people are suffering and our government has no credible plan to set us back on the right path.

The offer the DA laid before South Africans – change that builds one country for all – is the direct opposite of where we find ourselves right now. Because right now we are not one South Africa for all. We are two distinct South Africas – those on the inside with jobs, opportunities, good education, healthcare and prospects, and those on the outside, the unemployed, the poor and the forgotten.

This offer of One South Africa for All isn’t just a feel-good statement either. It’s not about unity and diversity for its own sake. It’s about breaking down the very real barriers that keep millions of people locked out of the economy and deprived of dignity. It’s about dismantling an unjust system that places opportunities in the hands of some and not others. It’s about bridging the gap between the insiders and the outsiders and it will take all South Africans working together to achieve this. That’s why we emphasise the need for unity.

The struggle for a nonracial South Africa has been a long and arduous one. It was the very reason for the formation of the ANC more than 100 years ago and it is why we all embrace being African. But today the ANC’s narrow pursuit of “racial balancing” is not a continuation of this struggle. It’s the opposite. It’s regression, not progress.

My message at the launch will be the same we will now take to every corner of the country: There is only one party that can bring change that builds One South Africa for All and that party is the DA. We’re the only party fighting for a truly inclusive economy. We’re the only party not pitting South Africans against one another or speaking only for certain groups. And we’re the only party with a real plan for economic growth and jobs.

We’re also the only party “doing” instead of “talking”. We’re not some fringe party with impractical and unworkable ideas. We have a formidable track record in government – initially in the Western Cape and in Cape Town and, more recently, in Johannesburg, Tshwane and Nelson Mandela Bay. Since 2006 we have been building our capacity as a future national government and with each election more South Africans have trusted us with their votes.

Our campaign in the coming months will focus heavily on the five issues that we know matter most to ordinary South Africans. These issues are jobs, crime, corruption, basic services and immigration. We call this our agenda for change.

• On jobs – we will speak not only of ways in which we will create new jobs, but also of how we can ensure that all South Africans have fair access to these jobs without having the “right” political connections or having to bribe or sleep with people;

• On crime – we will speak of how to transform SAPS from a poorly trained, understaffed and corruption-ridden organisation into a lean, clean crime-fighting machine. We will set out our plans to reintroduce the specialised drugs and gang units to make our besieged communities safe once more;

• On corruption and state capture – we will assure people that our country will not be sold to the highest bidder. Our pledge is to send those found guilty of corruption to prison for 15 years and it is one we fully intend to honour;

• On service delivery – we will reiterate our promise to fight for the dignity of our people by speeding up the rollout of basic services, as we have been doing where we already govern. Our track record in this regard is head and shoulders above that of the ANC and we will do the same in national government; and

• On immigration – we will set out our plan to secure our borders and rid Home Affairs of corruption. No country in the world can afford uncontrolled immigration and particularly not a country where resources are as scarce as ours. We will welcome those who enter legally, but we will shut the door on those doing so illegally.

This is our vision for building One South Africa for All. Our big job now is to take it to every corner of our country in the next few months. In the real world, far from the media bubble of “Ramaphoria”, people are tired of the ANC’s empty promises and want change. They are ready to embrace a new government that speaks for them and fights for them. There is only one party that can be this government and that’s the DA.

• Maimane is leader of the Democratic Alliance.