Your Vote Can Bring the DA Difference

Note to editors: Below is an extract of a speech prepared for delivery in "Area O" of the Walmer Township in Port Elizabeth. It is an ANC ward. President Zuma is handing over RDP houses in the nearby DA ward of Gunguluza in Kwanobuhle, Uitenhage

Fellow South Africans,

I am here today because I have heard about the RDP houses you were promised but never received. I have seen the foundations of these houses that were never finished because the municipality says it ran out of money. I can imagine how frustrating it must be to see your half-built houses when you are living in a shack, getting water from a standpipe and using the bucket system.  That frustration is seriously aggravated because so much money has been wasted in corrupt and fruitless expenditure.

The Eastern Cape recorded the highest level of irregular expenditure in the past financial year amounting to R2,7-Billion Rand (R2,700,000,000).  It is particularly infuriating considering that the Eastern Cape had R500-million of its municipal infrastructure grant withdrawn by the national Treasury, because the province failed to spend the money.  It is bizarre in this context that the municipality said it ran out of money.

You don't have to put up with this.

Not far from here in Gunguluza in Kwanobuhle, Uitenhage, President Zuma is handing over 2125 RDP houses. He will say they are proof that the ANC is delivering a better life for all.

But do you know why these houses were built?

They were built because the DA councillor for that ward, Franay van der Linde, has been campaigning for these houses since 2006. When she began work in Gunguluza there were no RDP houses, only shacks. There were no flushable toilets, only pit latrines. There were only two standpipes supplying water to the community. And there was no electricity whatsoever.

It is because of Franay's hard work that the community now has houses with flushable toilets, electricity and running water. She worked day and night to make it happen because she cares about the people she serves.

That is the difference a good councillor can make. It is the difference between the DA and the ANC. We call it the DA difference.

DA councillors put the people first, not themselves. All our candidates are elected through a rigorous, fair and democratic process designed to find the best person for the job. That is why we are not riddled with in-fighting like some other parties. And it is why our councillors deliver for all where they serve.

You can have the DA difference here in Walmer. Change is within your reach. It is up to you to choose a councillor that cares about you. It is up to you to choose a party that delivers.

It is not just your councillor who could change after this election. The DA has a very good chance of winning the election in the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality. But we can only win if everybody who wants change turns out to vote for the DA on election day.

I am not asking you to pledge your undying allegiance to the DA. No party in a democracy deserves that kind of loyalty. All we are asking you is to lend us your vote for the next five years. If we fail you, you can take your vote back and give it to someone else at the next election.

You can choose five more years living next to half-built houses without running water, electricity and sanitation.

Or you can choose the DA. We will make the completion of these houses a top priority should we win the election here.

If you want to experience the DA difference, you know what to do on 18 May.

Vote DA.

Because the DA delivers for all!

Issued by the DA, May 9 2011

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