The DA will not allow South Africa to become a victim of the ANC’s civil war

6 May 2021

The events of the past 24 hours have confirmed that South Africans stand before a choice that will define our country for a generation. The choice before us is this: will we sit back and allow the civil war inside the ANC to drag us into a constitutional crisis from which our democracy may never recover, or will we seize the moment to finally break free from ANC rule to save our country?

The DA unequivocally chooses the latter.

The farcical merry-go-round of suspensions and counter-suspensions by the supposed leaders of the ANC confirms that we can either have continued ANC domination, or we can have a prosperous future for our country. But we cannot have both.

On the one hand, it is clear that Ace Magashule and his fellow bandits will not hesitate to burn our country to the ground to hang onto their ill-gotten gains and stay out of jail. On the other hand, it is clear that Cyril Ramaphosa’s feeble strategy of appeasement has backfired spectacularly on a President who puts the preservation of his party over the interests of our country.

Last night, we saw the first shots fired in what is set to become a fight to the death inside the ANC. But make no mistake about it: none of the factions involved in this war are fighting for the people of South Africa. They are all fighting for control over the industrial-scale patronage machine that the ANC has become. And because the ANC is currently still the majority party in South Africa, the damage will inevitably spill-over into our society, which is already suffering under the greatest health and economic crisis of our lifetime.

The reality is that the people of South Africa will be the true victims of this civil war if we don’t urgently end the era of ANC political domination.

In this moment of profound crisis for South Africa, the DA will not hesitate to step up to the plate. Mere months ago, I made the public call that only a fundamental realignment of our politics can secure South Africa’s future. That realignment is now coming to pass in front of our very eyes.

The ANC and the vision of a prosperous South Africa can no longer co-exist. That is why I will be calling for an urgent debate of national importance in Parliament on the threat posed to our democracy by the civil war inside the governing party and the need for us to realign our politics to save our country. We have arrived at a time for choosing, and the DA unashamedly chooses to put the rights, needs, and future of South Africans first.

Issued by John Steenhuisen, Leader of the Democratic Alliance, 6 May 2021