Let’s take the Western Cape to the next level

The following speech was delivered today by the Leader of the Democratic Alliance, John Steenhuisen, during a rally in Belhar, Cape Town:

My fellow Democrats, and fellow South Africans,

It is an honour to speak with you today from the heart of Belhar, in the beautiful blue province of the Western Cape.

Die Wes-Kaap werk, want die DA is oppit.

Ek wil graag begin deur hartlik dankie te sê aan al die aktiviste van die blou masjien.

Dis julle wat die wind laat waai hier in die Kaap.

Aan elke passievolle DA aktivis wat reeds vir maande lank werk om die Wes-Kaap blou te hou, sê ek vandag baie dankie.

Enkosi kakhulu.

But there are still four days left to go Democrats.

Now is the time for each one of us to delve deep within ourselves, to find the focus and energy we will need to make history on the 29th of May.

If we stay energised, we will rewrite the story of South Africa next week by defeating the ANC for the first time ever, and electing a new national government, anchored by a strong DA, that can rescue South Africa.

I want to now speak directly to the people of the Western Cape.

I know that many of you are tired of this long election campaign and the many political gimmicks we saw.

But, with only four days left until Election Day, we all need to remind ourselves that this election is not a game.

It is a deadly serious business.

So, I want to cut out the politics today and just talk straight to you.

No matter what your political affiliation may be, every South African knows it as a fact that the Western Cape works better than any other province in this country.

But what has recently happened in places like Knysna, Theewaterskloof and Beaufort-West – where the coalition of corruption between the ANC, the EFF and the Patriotic Alliance has destroyed service delivery – shows us that the Western Cape is not immune to the corruption and decline we see everywhere else.

So here’s the straight truth.

The Western Cape works.

But the Western Cape can break.

It can break on the 29th of May, if the voters of this province stay at home or split the DA’s vote among the dozens of small parties on the ballot paper.

If voters stay at home, or if the DA’s vote is split among small parties, the Western Cape will stop working.

Because the back door to power will swing wide open for the coalition of corruption between the ANC, the EFF and the Patriotic Alliance to take over through a coalition of corruption.

This coalition will break the Western Cape, just like it broke Knysna, just like it broke Theewaterskloof, and just like it broke Beaufort-West.

This isn’t political talk.

Again I say: no matter what your politics are, if you live in the Western Cape, we all know that these are cold, hard facts.

The Western Cape works because it has a DA outright majority.

And the Western Cape will break if it loses its DA outright majority.

This province has simply come too far for us to throw away all the progress we have made together.

The people of the Western Cape cannot afford to lose the 360 000 new jobs that were created by the DA in this province in just one year.

The people of Belhar, of Mitchells Plan, of Delft and of Gugulethu cannot afford to lose the 1 200 LEAP officers that have taken 27 000 criminals off our streets since Alan Winde became Premier.

Our province cannot afford to lose the 100% clean audits obtained by the DA in the Western Cape last year, because then our tax money will be stolen just like in the rest of the country.

The people of the Western Cape cannot afford to lose access to clean drinking water, they cannot afford to lose roads without potholes, and they cannot afford to lose the best public schools and hospitals in the country.

Forget about politics.

These are the things all the people of the Western Cape will lose if you stay at home on Election Day, or if you split the DA’s vote and allow small parties to help the ANC and EFF to break this province.

If that happens, we not only stand to lose all of these tangible things – jobs, clean water, and good roads, schools and hospitals – but we will also lose something intangible that is arguably even more powerful.

If the Western Cape falls to the same corruption we see everywhere else, all of us will lose the most precious thing of all.

We will lose hope.

For, over the past fifteen years of honest DA government and progress, the Western Cape has become one of the last remaining symbols of hope for South Africa.

The fact that the Western Cape works, gives all of us hope that South Africa can work, and that our children can have a better future in this country.

But if voters stay at home, or if they split the DA’s vote and allow the Western Cape to be broken just like the rest of South Africa, we will all lose hope.

That is why I am here today to tell you that I – John Steenhuisen – I refuse to give up on hope.

The thousands of people at this event today, refuse to give up on hope.

The Democratic Alliance, refuses to give up on hope.

If you are watching this at home right now, just look at the thousands of people at this DA rally today.

They come from every background, they come from every neighbourhood, they come from every part of this province.

These people are your neighbours, they are your friends, and they are your colleagues.

What you are witnessing here today, you will never see in any other party in this country.

What you see here is a declaration of intent that all of us – coloured, black, white and Indian – stand united in saying.

We refuse to give in to hatred and division, and we refuse to give up on the dream of a better, united future.

If these patriotic South Africans from all backgrounds can stand here as one to declare that they love the Western Cape too much to allow the politics of division and fear to break this beautiful province, then you watching at home can do the same.

It doesn’t matter where you live, what language you speak, or what your background is.

If you choose hope over fear and if you choose unity over division, then the Democratic Alliance is the party for you.

Because this big blue machine will not sit idly by as the ANC, the EFF and their allies in small parties try to break the Western Cape, and break our hopes and dreams in the process.

So, join all of us in keeping hope alive.

On the 29th of May, the hope for a better future rests on the shoulders of the Western Cape people.

All it takes to keep hope alive, and to protect the Western Cape from corruption and decline, is the simple yet powerful act of drawing all three of your crosses next to the DA on Wednesday.

It is only you, the voter, who can prevent the corruption, the unemployment, the crime and the collapse that will follow if small parties and the ANC succeed in splitting the DA vote.

It is only you, the voter, who has the power to keep the Western Cape working.

Instead of breaking this province by staying at home or splitting the DA vote, let’s unite behind the DA and build it up even further.

While other parties offer only division and decline, the DA’s offer in this election is to take the Western Cape to the next level.

The DA’s manifesto – which is available in English, Afrikaans and Xhosa, because we respect all the official languages of this province – is the blueprint for how the DA will take the Western Cape to the next level.

In this election, a vote for the DA is a vote for 800 000 new jobs in the Western Cape.

A vote for the DA is a vote for thousands of law enforcement officers, rural safety units and K9 units to make our streets safe.

A vote the DA is a vote to cut loadshedding, for control over our own policing, railways and ports, for more and better schools, for world-class public hospitals, and for an honest and accountable government.

If you want to protect the progress we’ve made, and if you want to take the Western Cape to the next level, then you have to go out and vote for the DA on Wednesday.

I have news for the ANC and their handlangers in the EFF and the Patriotic Alliance.

The people of the Western Cape will not allow your politics of fear and division to give power back to thieves and looters.

Not through the front door, and not through the back door.

Because the people of the Western Cape choose the politics of hope and unity, embodied by the big, strong and diverse DA you see here today.

To the people of the Western Cape, I say.

The time for politics is now over.

It’s time to get serious.

Just four days from now, we will vote in the most serious election in the history of our democracy.

When it is all said and done, Wednesday’s election boils down to a fundamental choice for the people of this province.

Do you want the DA to take the Western Cape to the next level, or do you want the ANC and its partners to break the Western Cape like they’ve broken every other province?

When you look at it like this, based only on facts and without the noisy politics, it’s really no choice at all.

We simply must keep the Western Cape DA.

On Wednesday, history calls on the millions of DA voters in this province to get out of bed, go to your local polling station, and vote for the DA on all three of your ballots.

Because only a strong DA can prevent corruption from breaking the Western Cape.

Only a strong DA can keep the Western Cape working and take it to the next level.

And only a strong DA can rescue South Africa.

I say it again.

Only the DA can keep the Western Cape working, and only the DA can rescue South Africa.

We can do it.

We must do it.

And, together on Wednesday, we will do it.

Thank you.