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A rescue plan for the Eastern Cape

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The following speech was delivered by the DA Eastern Cape Provincial Leader, Andrew Whitfield MP, during the launch of the DA Eastern Cape Manifesto 2024, at the West End Community Hall in Gqeberha, Nelson Mandela Bay:

I love my province, this is my home!

Die Oos-Kaap is my huis, jou huis, ons huis

impuma Koloni likhaya lam, likhaya lakho, likhaya lethu

This beautiful home and our family who live within its boundaries are a proud and beautiful people with abundant potential.

A people filled with hope of a better future for themselves, their children and their grandchildren.

A people who deserve to live in a home with a constant supply of electricity, healthy food and jobs; a home that is united, strong and safe. A home that delivers dignity to all members of our family from the cradle to the grave.

Our family deserve all of this and so much more but sadly this is not the lived reality for far too many people

The reality is that our province, our home, is dark due to load shedding and failing municipal networks, the cupboards in the kitchen are empty due to the crippling cost of living crisis, families are being torn apart by drugs while criminals rape our sisters and our mothers take their own lives to avoid the humility of not being able to feed their children.

The reality is that our family, die mense van die Oos-Kaap/abahlahi base mpuma koloni, are being humiliated day in and day out by an uncaring government that is driving more and more people into poverty, unemployment and hopelessness.

You see, our home, the Eastern Cape, is the poorest and most poverty stricken home in the entire country with the highest unemployment rate and some of the highest rates of violent crime anywhere in the country.

You are more likely to be unemployed, starve to death or be murdered in the Eastern Cape than any other province.

A young child in the Eastern Cape cannot see a clear pathway out of poverty when child malnutrition stunts their growth, limits their opportunity and destroys their future.

How can we sit back and do nothing while our children suffer this shameful indignity and abuse at the hands of an uncaring government?

How can anyone sit back and tolerate the humiliation being forced upon our family, our home, our province?

Well, we are here today to tell you that the DA in the Eastern Cape will not sit back and watch this tragedy continue to unfold.

We will not fold our arms and close our eyes.

We will fight to rescue our home from the clutches of a corrupt, uncaring and criminal government so that we can deliver dignity and opportunity to our Eastern Cape family.

We will rescue the Eastern Cape and fundamentally change the lives of some of the poorest people in our province, by lifting them out of poverty, into opportunity and into a future where their hopes and dreams can be realised.

We will build an opportunity ladder out of poverty and into opportunity so that we can grow the middle class and build a job creating enterprise economy which will inject hope into the hearts of our children who will be able to finally see that a better future is within reach.

We know that South Africans are tired of empty promises and that is why our manifesto is a detailed, evidence based blue print – a rescue plan, that we know will deliver a better future for all!

  • Through this plan we will tackle poverty in the Eastern Cape because a government that doesn’t steal and waste money has more to spend on supporting the most vulnerable in our province by increasing the child support grant; introducing a job-seekers grant and employing more social workers to support and strengthen our families.
  • We will create jobs by investing heavily in the infrastructure that is critical for the growth of our economy so that we can lift people out of poverty, into jobs and ultimately into the job creating middle class that will grow our economy.
  • We will fight violent crime like never before with more boots on the ground and less generals in Pretoria. Under a DA government no criminal will be able to hide as we deploy technology and evidence-based policing strategies to root out criminal syndicates and gangs.
  • We will build a capable state in the Eastern Cape by abolishing cadre deployment and ensuring the most qualified people are employed by government to ensure quality services are delivered.
  • We will end load-shedding and water-shedding which is affecting more communities across the province today than 5 years ago as our infrastructure collapses due to a lack of maintenance. Places like Makhanda and Ezebleni in eKmonani who suffer regular water shedding will have clean, quality and consistent water coming out of their taps. And just as my friend Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis is doing in Cape Town we will incentivise private citizens to invest in solar by buying their extra electricity.
  • In order to build our opportunity ladder out of poverty and into prosperity we will rescue our broken education system by tripling the number of grade four learners who can read for meaning and ensuring that children and teachers go to school and stay at school for every school day of the year.
  • Lastly, we will ensure quality healthcare for all, irrespective of where you live, because every single member of our Eastern Cape family deserves the dignity of quality healthcare, whether at a clinic or at a hospital. The fear of leaving hospital in a coffin for a simple procedure or waiting months for that procedure because of a lack of equipment will be a thing of the past.

The Eastern Cape is our home and her people are our family and we need to stand up and fight harder than ever before to rescue our home so that ours will be a home with:

  • Food in our cupboards;
  • Children and teachers in our schools;
  • Graduates in jobs;
  • Gangsters and corrupt politicians in jail;
  • Water in our taps;
  • Light in our light bulbs;
  • And Hope in our hearts to light the pathway to prosperity under a DA led government!

Let us join hands today to Rescue SA and leave no voter behind as we march to the Union Buildings on the 29th of May!

Viva DA Viva!

Phambili DA Phambili!

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Port Elizabethan

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