Your vote can close the wealth gap

Note to editors: Below is an extract of a speech prepared for delivery this morning in Itsoseng, Soshanguve which falls under the jurisdiction of the Tshwane municipality

Fellow South Africans,

It is good to be here in Soshanguve, but it breaks my heart that your municipality has neglected you like this. Nine out of ten families in this area live in a shack. There is no electricity and only pit latrines for sanitation. You have to walk five kilometres to get water from the nearest tap.

You are not the only ones living in these conditions in this city - the Tshwane municipality is the worst metro for service delivery in the country. A study by the national government conducted last year found that only 66% of Tshwane residents have access to basic services like clean water, electricity, sanitation and refuse removal. In Cape Town, by comparison, the same study found that 91% of residents had access to those services.

You don't have to live like this in Soshanguve. Your vote can bring about real change in the Tshwane municipality. When we say your vote can win it in Tshwane, we mean it. The ANC knows it can lose the election in Tshwane. We know this because, according to Wikileaks, this is what an ANC official told an American diplomat last year.

The ANC's fear of losing is why it has spent most of the campaign trying to discredit the DA instead of talking about its own track record in government. It will tell you lies such as that the DA does not care about the poor where it governs, that Cape Town is the most unequal city in the world.

The truth is that the gap between the rich and the poor in Cape Town is smaller than any other city in South Africa. In fact, sadly for South Africa, Johannesburg is the most unequal city in the world. Pretoria is not far behind. This is not my opinion, it is the finding of a recent report by the United Nations.[1]

In Cape Town, people are moving out of poverty because we invest more in services and infrastructure that benefit the poor than any other city in the country. Consider the facts:

According to the UHABS index compiled by national government, more people have access to basic services in Cape Town than any other city.

Every household with an income of less than R3,000 per month gets free water, electricity and refuse removal. As part of this indigent policy, these households do not have to pay rates. From next year, this income threshold will be increased to R4,000 per month.

Last year, the National Treasury praised Cape Town for creating 10,000 permanent jobs and 16,300 temporary jobs -- more than any other metro in the country. The City also recently won an award from the national government for creating more job opportunities through our expanded public works programme than any other municipality in the country.

Since the DA has been in office, housing delivery in Cape Town has doubled. These facts and figures show that Cape Town under the DA is tops for access to basic services (including free basic services), housing delivery and job creation. They show that life for the poor in Cape Town is better than it is in other cities, and it is getting better all the time.

We call this the DA difference. And we want to bring it to Tshwane after this election. We want to build houses, create jobs and provide basic services for all. We want to close the gap between rich and poor.

We don't think it is right that one in five Tshwane residents still do not have access to the most basic level of sanitation. We don't think it is fair that nine out of ten people here still live in a shack.

We want to change all this. And we can do it if everybody who wants change in Tshwane turns out to vote on election day. We can do it if you just lend us your vote for five years.

If you don't like what we do with it, you can take it back and give it to another party at the next election. It is up to you. Take a chance on the DA. After all, what do you have to lose?

You can choose another five years of neglect. Or you can choose a party that cares. You can choose the DA difference. So, whatever you do on 18 May, make sure you go out and vote.

And vote DA.

Because the DA delivers for all!

[1] The 2010/11 UN-Habitat State of World Cities Report found that Cape Town had the lowest gini coefficient in South Africa

Issued by the DA, May 12 2011

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