DA leader John Steenhuisen has blamed the ANC for the stage 4 load shedding dramatically introduced by Eskom.
Steenhuisen was speaking on Thursday during the final campaign rally of his party’s Joburg mayoral candidate, Dr Mpho Phalatse, in Eldorado Park on Thursday.
As he was addressing the crowd at the local sports field, some of the Joburg suburban areas and townships were already experiencing a series of power outages and traffic on the road was stalling due to the load-shedding.
In his view, Steenhuisen was adamant that it was allegedly due to ANC corruption saying: “When you appoint corrupt, useless cadres, you get power blackouts, you get job-shedding, you get water-shedding. When you appoint capable people, you get things done. If the DA has the most seats, we will govern.
“During five years of DA-run government, you can expect to see and experience steady improvements to service delivery as we implement our winning formula, which is to appoint people based on merit, and spend public money on the public.
“We will cancel corrupt contracts, stabilise the finances, get the basics done and turn this metro around. Our winning formula works, and it shows in municipal rankings,” he said.
Steenhuisen said South Africa’s five top-rated best-run municipalities and its top-rated best-run metro, Cape Town, were all governed by the DA with an outright DA majority in council.
He pleaded with the voters to vote for the DA in Joburg saying they were looking to garner more than 50% of the vote.
According to Steenhuisen, Joburg is a two-horse race with a pack of ankle-snappers, in direct reference to the ActionSA, Patriotic Alliance (PA) and other independent candidates bringing up the rear.
He said Joburg’s future, “your future, the lives of Joburg’s six million residents”, was dependent on who wins this two-horse race.
“If you want a DA-run Johannesburg, you need to give the DA more seats than the ANC. Even if the DA does not win an outright majority, you can still get a DA-run coalition, as long as the DA gets more seats than the ANC. Be warned. We will not be able to bring the DA difference and fix Joburg unless we get more seats than the ANC. If the ANC has the most seats, they will run and ruin this city,” he said.
Steenhuisen said with another five years of ANC-run government, residents could expect the City to continue to disintegrate as the ANC continues to implement its losing formula, which was to deploy cadres into government, “based on political favours, and to steal public money.”
“Your best chance of seeing real, swift progress in JHB and getting quality service delivery and job-creating economic growth is if the DA wins an outright DA majority. This is the first prize.
“It’s no coincidence that all the best-run municipalities have a full DA majority in the council. It means we can implement our values and our vision of an open, opportunity society for all without smaller parties tugging at the steering wheel wanting to turn it this way and that. Coalitions can work. But they tend to slow down service delivery and introduce the risk of interrupted delivery,” Steenhuisen said.
Political Bureau