DA files Public Protector complaint against ANC manipulators

Note to Editors: The following speech was delivered today by the Leader of the Democratic Alliance, John Steenhuisen, at the premier of the Rescue South Africa campaign anthem in Cape Town.

Fellow Democrats,

Ek kan aan niks lekkerder dink as om vanaand hier in die Kaap te wees nie!

Waar’s dit lekker?

Hier’s dit lekker!

Dis lekker hier in die Kaap, want die Wes-Kaap is blou!

No matter what anyone tells you, there is only one reason why the Western Cape works while the rest of South Africa is broken.

Because the people of the Western Cape are united behind the DA!

The people of the Western Cape know that eight out of every ten new jobs created in the whole South Africa over the past five years, comes from this one province – because this province is led by the DA.

The people of the Western Cape know that unemployment in this province is about to dip below 20% while the rest of the country sits with unemployment above 40% – because this province is led by the DA.

The people of the Western Cape know that the LEAP programme has taken 27 000 criminals off the street, while Cyril Ramaphosa released over 16 000 criminals back onto the streets just to keep Jacob Zuma out of prison – because this province is led by the DA.

The people of the Western Cape know that the biggest beneficiaries of DA good governance are the poorest and most vulnerable communities.

Over 70% of DA-led Cape Town’s budget is spent on servicing low-income households and upgrading the vital infrastructure that poor communities rely on.

The people of the Western Cape know that this province has the highest access to quality basic services in the entire country, including sanitation and clean drinking water – because it is led by the DA.

When we talk about the DA difference on display in the Western Cape, this is what we mean.

At the end of the day, the undisputed success of this DA-run province while the eight ANC-run provinces collapse, is down to a fundamental difference between the ANC and the DA.

The DA is a party that does what it says.

We govern well, we stick to the rules, and we apply those rules fairly to everyone.

That is why, wherever the DA takes over government from the ANC, corruption is uprooted, more jobs are created, and people have fair access to jobs without quotas or cadre deployment.

But the ANC is very, very different.

The ANC are the most dishonest manipulators our democracy has ever seen.

For thirty years, the ANC has scammed South Africans with promises they never intended to keep.

Think about it.

They manipulate us with the promise of jobs, but in reality, unemployment is higher than it has ever been.

Over the weekend, one of the thousands of university graduates who are unemployed despite holding a degree, Slindokuhle Khoza, approached Ramaphosa for help while he was campaigning in Orange Farm.

He dismissed her pleas by coldly telling her to “keep searching” for a job that doesn’t exist.

Afterwards, she said she felt “crushed” by the way Ramaphosa manipulated her into thinking he would help, but then arrogantly dismissing her.

The ANC also manipulates us with promises of free education, but in reality, Blade Nzimande’s cadres in NSFAS have looted all the money.

And right now, as we speak, they are busy manipulating us with load shedding.

The ANC knows they are going to lose the election in just 41 days.

Which is why they suddenly want us to fool us into believing that load shedding magically disappeared.

But at the same time, we also find out that they have developed new load shedding phases all the way up to stage 16 load shedding.

That is what the ANC has planned for us after the election.

Load shedding is not gone, it will just come back a hundred times worse the day after the election.

Once again, the ANC are trying to scam us!

We all know that they are burning all the diesel they can find, and running what remains of Eskom into the ground before the election, because they don’t care that the country will be plunged into stage 16 load shedding afterwards.

All they care about, is manipulating us for their own selfish ends.

For the past five years, Cyril Ramaphosa has been manipulating us with his empty promises of fighting corruption and state capture.

But he is the one who chaired the ANC cadre deployment committee when state capture happened.

He is the one who appointed the state capture criminals to his Cabinet.

And he is the one who wants to send 90 state capture accused back to Parliament after the election.

Ramaphosa is the biggest and most dishonest manipulator of them all.

He scammed many people into believing in his New Dawn.

But, like everyone in the ANC, his promises were lies, only intended to benefit himself and his friends.

Just yesterday, the DA revealed how Ramaphosa manipulated the criminal justice system to keep Zuma out of prison.

To create a cover for releasing Zuma, Ramaphosa released more than 16 000 convicted criminals onto our streets in August last year.

This included nearly 4 000 thieves, over 2 500 housebreakers, 400 robbers, 20 arsonists, 17 kidnappers as well as six domestic abusers and rapists.

The next time that the pretends to care about ANC crimes like gender-based violence, remember that it is the same ANC that let rapists back onto your streets to protect Zuma.

But it doesn’t stop there.

Because the DA also revealed yesterday that over 400 of these convicted criminals have already committed new offenses after they were released.

That means 400 innocent people have again fallen victim to these criminals because of Ramaphosa’s manipulation.

The blood of these victims is on the President’s hands, because they would never have been attacked if the criminals had stayed in jail, where they belong.

On top of all this, Ramaphosa came out on Sunday to say he has “no regret” about releasing these criminals to terrorise our communities.

Of course he has no regret, because all he ever cared about was manipulating the people of South Africa to protect Zuma.

And then Bheki Cele, who is part of the government that releases violent criminals back onto our streets, comes to this DA-led province over the weekend to tell the people of Hanover Park to stop asking for more policing resources.

This when Cele’s anti-gang unit in this province does not even have radios to communicate with.

This is the same Bheki Cele who recently admitted that 2.5 million serious crimes committed over the past three years remain unsolved.

Hy moet liewer sy werk gaan doen en daai 2.5 miljoen kriminele arresteer, as om te kom nonsens praat in die Wes-Kaap.

But Cele is right about one thing.

We are not asking for more policing resources in the Western Cape.

We are now simply going to do it.

After the DA is elected into national government on the 29^th of May, we are going to empower the DA-led Western Cape to take over and fix policing in this province – whether the ANC likes it or not!

But Democrats,

Sometimes there is some poetic justice in politics.

Slim vang sy baas.

Because the same ANC which was so scared of Zuma that it released 16 000 criminals back onto your streets, is now being decimated by Zuma’s new party.

The manipulative Ramaphosa thought that if he just kept feeding the crocodile, it would stop being hungry.

But a crocodile is never full, and now it is devouring the ANC itself.

And I say, in this election, let us all prey on the ANC until there is nothing left of this criminal syndicate that has run our country into the ground!

The collapse of the ANC in all credible opinion polls shows that the people of South Africa are tired of being manipulated.

They are tired of being abused by selfish people who lie to them before elections, but then break all of their promises the day after.

The people of South Africa know that the time for change, has come.

And they know that, at the heart of the change that will rescue South Africa, is the Democratic Alliance.

Because while the ANC only manipulates you, the DA delivers on our pledges everywhere that we govern.

It is time to bring the abuse of South Africans to an end.

That is why I can today announce that the DA will be filing a complaint with the Public Protector against Cyril Ramaphosa’s manipulation of public resources as part of the ANC’s increasingly desperate election campaign.

At an ANC campaign event on Saturday, Ramaphosa promised the crowd 500 000 skills training and job opportunities using a taxpayer-funded scheme.

This also comes after the ANC in Gauteng already used a jobs manipulation scam called Nasi iSpani for campaigning, promising hundreds of thousands of jobs but which actually uses taxpayer money to dish out positions to ANC cadres.

These schemes are just the latest attempts by the ANC to manipulate the people at taxpayer expense, and the DA won’t stand for it.

We urge the Public Protector to urgently investigate this abuse of taxpayer funds for the purposes of election manipulation.

It is time to hold the ANC accountable for scamming this country.

They cannot be allowed to simply get away with constantly lying to the people with promises they have no intention of keeping.

En moenie ‘n fout maak nie.

Die ANC het reeds hul volgende verneukspul beplan.

The ANC’s next big manipulation is this: if you vote for the ANC in this election, they are planning to sell you out to the EFF.

The ANC has realised they no longer have any chance of getting a majority.

So they are now planning to sell their voters out to the violent EFF in a Doomsday Coalition that will plunge South Africa into chaos.

Julius Malema already confirmed that this is the plan.

He has told us that the plan is for the ANC and EFF to form a Doomsday Coalition, with Floyd Shivambu as finance minister.

If we allow the ANC to pull off this latest manipulation, you will end up with the same person who helped loot VBS Bank as your finance minister.

EFF policies will be implemented and your property will be expropriated without compensation, your pension will be looted, your savings will evaporate, and inflation will plunge you into starvation.

In this election, a vote for the ANC is a vote for the chaos and violence of the EFF.

So if you are tired of being manipulated by the ANC, and if you don’t want your vote to be sold out to the violent EFF, then now is the time to vote for the DA.

Fellow South Africans,

There is only one party with a sustained track record of good, clean and accountable government, and that is the DA.

There is only one party that keeps its word, that does what it says it will, that sticks to the rules and that treats everyone fairly, and that is the DA.

We all know that the ANC will not abolish the cadre deployment system that keeps honest people locked out of jobs – but the DA will.

We all know that Ramaphosa will never lock up the state capture crooks sitting around his own Cabinet table – but I will.

We all know that the ANC will never confront the criminals they have released back onto the streets – but we will!

It is because of our proven track record of getting things done, that the DA’s offer in this election is credible.

To rescue South Africa before it is too late, a new national government anchored by the DA will:

Unleash the private sector to create two million real, sustainable jobs;

End loadshedding and water-shedding;

Halve the rate of violent crime including murder, attempted murder and gender-based violence;

Crush corruption by abolishing cadre deployment;

Lift six million people out of poverty;

Triple the number of grade four learners who can read for meaning; and

Ensure quality healthcare for all, regardless of economic status.

The DA can do all these things because we are the only party with the people to get things done.

I now invite the DA’s provincial and metro leadership, as well as our Western Cape candidates for the 2024 election, to join me on stage.

South Africa has had enough of the manipulators in the ANC.

The time has come to make history together, by voting them out.

In this election, victory is within reach for the DA, and the stakes are too high for anyone to stay at home!

So, please join me in ending off with our national anthem.

This beautiful anthem is our rallying cry, as we march resolutely towards the 29^th of May.

To teach the liars and manipulators in the ANC a lesson they will never forget.

And to rescue South Africa, the country that we all love – before it is too late.

We can do it.

We must do it.

And, together, we will do it.

Thank you.