ANC's divisive race-card campaign won't work

The ANC has given up trying to convince voters to give it their support. Instead, it has hauled out the race card in a desperate attempt to convince its own supporters not to vote for the DA.

This is the first election since 1994 in which the ANC is facing a significant loss of support. It has cracked under the pressure at the first test. The ANC's true colours have been revealed: it is a party of racial nationalism that seeks to divide South Africans along racial lines in an attempt to shore up its rapidly eroding support base.

All over South Africa, ANC leaders from Jacob Zuma to Julius Malema are engaged in a wild effort to rubbish some of the best examples of good governance South Africa has to offer. In doing so, they are using lies and distortions to make the tired and unfounded case that the DA is racist. It will not work.

It will not work because South Africans are tired of failing service delivery and tired of racial mobilisation. Instead, they want local governments that get the basics right, deliver services and treat people with respect. The ANC failed to grasp this before the election began, assuming it could run the same campaign it has run for the past few elections and achieve the same result. It can't and it won't.

The DA, by contrast, understands that South Africans want two things above all else: the effective service delivery that makes a better life for all possible, and leadership that seeks to unite, not divide. That is why our campaign offers delivery for all and is grounded in our track record of delivery for all where we govern.

The DA will not be drawn into the vortex of race-based laager politics. Rather, we will continue to make the case that we deliver for all, and we will continue to put forward the evidence that makes our case credible.

This election is a contest between DA facts and ANC propaganda.

It is essential that South Africans are given the opportunity to judge the evidence for themselves. To this end we have, during the course of this election, released a great number of documents setting out the evidence. Here follows a selection:

• The DA's 2011 Local Government Manifesto
• Helen Zille's 2011 Election Campaign Launch Speech
• The Cape Town Story: How the DA turned Cape Town around
• Municipal Infrastructure Grants: How the DA is delivering to the poor
• Cape Town's financial track record: How the DA created a clean, efficient administration
• Helen Zille's Freedom Day speech
• Cape Town's annual Community Satisfaction Survey
• Provincial infrastructure spending: Western Cape only province to receive 100% infrastructure grant from Treasury
• The Cape Town Manifesto
• The DA Delivery Daily Facts: A series of daily statements based on the DA's delivery track record
• A City for All the People: Cape Town's record of delivery to the poor

All of these documents can be found on the website http://www.thedadeliverydaily.com/

There are many others, and more to come. Tomorrow, for example, the DA will be releasing a document setting out its delivery record in those municipalities outside of Cape Town, where it governs.

Statement issued by Lindiwe Mazibuko MP, DA National Spokesperson, May 3 2011

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