Announcement of DA's candidate for Western Cape Premier
After considerable discussion with the party leadership, I have agreed to be nominated as the Democratic Alliance's Premier candidate for the Western Cape .
The DA re-launched last year as a party of government. We took this step, because experience has taught us that we must win executive office to demonstrate the difference that our principles and policies make in practice, for everyone. This is the most effective role we can play, not only where we govern, but for our country as a whole, as we undertake the process of national political realignment.
Our journey started in 2006 when the DA won the City of Cape Town and other local authorities in the Western Cape. The next phase is to win at provincial level in the 22 April election this year.
Our purpose in taking this next step, is to show what co-operative governance between a local authorities and a province can achieve. Both spheres are closely inter-linked in many ways and we can attain exceptional outcomes if we all pull together, rather than in opposite directions. Despite improvements in recent months, we are nowhere close to optimal co-operative governance.
We will then go on to face the 2011 local government elections, where we will win cities and towns across South Africa. The final phase is to be central to the formation of a national government in 2014.
This is our trajectory and we are on track to achieve it. When I accepted the position of Leader of the Democratic Alliance in 2007, I said that my goal was to re-align South African politics. I said the ANC would split and that this would facilitate the re-alignment process. I have said repeatedly that the only way to consolidate our democracy is to break the ANC's dominance and build a new majority, step by step, starting with local government.
This is our mission. I have accepted nomination as the DA's candidate for the Premiership to help facilitate the next step and to allow new leadership to emerge in the City. A DA-led government in the City and Province will work seamlessly to achieve shared goals of service delivery and development for all.
Until the election, I will continue in my role as Mayor of Cape Town, with the excellent support of my colleagues in the city's functional leadership team. I will continue to lead the Democratic Alliance at a national level.
At each step of the way, our aim is to show that life gets better for everyone, where the DA governs. We will expose the ANC's lies that we are racists, or that we intend to bring back apartheid. We will show South Africa that the open, opportunity society that we stand for is infinitely preferable to the closed, crony society of the ANC.
Statement issued by Helen Zille, Democratic Alliance leader, March 1 2009
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