VOTING IS FOR YOU TO HIRE AND FIRE LEADERS

Only way to punish corruption is at ballot box

IF YOU had Jacob Zuma on the phone right now, is there anything you would like to say to him? Would you say you’re too busy to speak? I doubt it. Because it would be a real and valuable opportunity to make your voice heard.

Well, on August 3, you will have him on the phone. Not literally, but you will have the opportunity to send him a clear message by voting in the municipal elections.

Your vote is how you say no to an ANC government that buys a R4-billion jet for a president while 8.9 million South Africans are jobless. Your vote is the most effective way to complain about potholes, broken streetlights, taps that run dry, or rubbish that goes uncollected in your town. Nothing gets results like a vote.

Voting is the only way you can fire Zuma’s ANC government that has stopped caring about people and started stealing instead.

Without voting there could be no democracy. Democracy is voting. It is a system in which citizens hire and fire their leaders. And it is now time to fire Zuma’s ANC and hire the DA instead.

The DA is the only party able to deliver services and create jobs in your municipality. We have shown that in Cape Town, which has by far the lowest unemployment rate of any city in South Africa.

We have shown it in Midvaal, the only DA-run municipality in Gauteng, which has an unemployment rate half the Gauteng average.

The DA is honest. According to the auditor-general, R2.2-billion was lost to corruption in the last financial year in Johannesburg, Tshwane and Nelson Mandela Bay, while in Cape Town, that figure was zero.

The only way to reward honesty and punish corruption is at the ballot box. Democracy requires change, and SA is ripe for change. By voting DA, you can drive that change.

Without change, our democracy will suffer and so will South Africans. An honest and caring DA municipality will improve your life. The ANC has been in power so long now they have forgotten their job is to serve you, not the other way around.

In many towns and cities these elections are going to be so close. The ANC and the DA are neck and neck in Johannesburg, Tshwane and Nelson Mandela Bay, all three economic engines of SA.

The DA will run these cities like it runs Cape Town, inspiring business confidence and attracting job-creating investment. That is why these elections are the most critical since 1994. They can rescue both our economy and our democracy.

It is simply not true that your vote doesn’t count. Very often, the outcome of a municipal election comes down to just a handful of votes. In 2006, the DA won Cape Town by the slimmest margin. Yet we have translated it into enormous positive change to the lives of millions of people. We inherited a mess and 10 years later, Cape Town is booming, jobs are being created, and the DA has a strong majority.

I urge you to vote DA to bring honest, capable and willing government to your municipality.

But remember, you are only choosing the DA for the next five years. Not forever. A vote is a temporary contract, not a marriage for life. I urge you to vote DA in 2016, but if the DA stops delivering, you must fire us. That is what democracy is all about.

Maimane is leader of the DA

“Democracy requires change and SA is now ripe for change