Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen says the ANC government led by President Cyril Ramaphosa has betrayed the dream of Tintswalo, South Africa’s democracy child.
Steenhuisen said while Tintswalo had hopes and dreams in the early years of democracy, her dream has been shattered by rampant crime, corruption, and load shedding.
He said Tintswalo had hope that this country will be better than the one her parents lived in.
But her dream has turned into a nightmare with socio-economic challenges.
“What the President did during his address, was to tell us the story of Tintswalo’s start in life during the 1990s and the 2000s. It was far from perfect, but it was a time of hope and possibility. But Tintswalo’s life story does not end after childhood.
“Today, she is a 30-year-old woman. She has entered the next phase of her life, as a wife, a mother and a provider. Over the past decade, she has watched with growing horror as the dream of her childhood was betrayed,” said Steenhuisen.
He said Tintswalo has become disillusioned with the ANC government that has let the country down.
“Tintswalo’s social consciousness started to develop during high school, as she watched the ANC elevate a man accused of corruption and rape to the highest office in the land.”
Tintshwalo was also not happy with the presidency of Jacob Zuma, which was mired in controversy and allegations of corruption relating to Nkandla and state capture.
“In 2015, she graduated from TVET college. A year later, Tintswalo realised that she was not alone in her growing unease about the future. In the 2016 local government election, she watched as voters in all major cities rebelled against the ANC. And she too started to think about voting differently at the next election.”
Steenhuisen said in 2019 Tintswalo voted for Ramaphosa with the hope he was going to fix the country, but the situation has become worse.
But Minister of Minerals and Energy Gwede Mantashe said Steenhuisen was living in the past.
He said many people who were saying the ANC has not delivered forget the government had to undo decades of apartheid.
Today, millions of people have access to basic services. There was 92% of electricity connection, he said.
IFP leader Velenkosini Hlabisa said the economy was growing above 5% during the Government of National Unity, but it soon declined.
Even after the 2008 global financial crisis, the economy continued to stagnate, despite other economies in the rest of the world growing at a faster pace.
For the last eight years, foreign investors have dumped billions in South African stocks.
When it comes to crime for the first five years of democracy until 1999, crime had decreased by 11%, but by 2021 crime had increased by 23%, he added.
Hlabisa urged Ramaphosa not to sign the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill because it was a disaster waiting to happen.
“Stop looking for the pen to sign the NHI Bill. The NHI is a recipe for disaster. South Africa is on auto pilot,” said Hlabisa.
Like Tintswalo, many young people were living in informal settlements. Their connection with Tintswalo is that they all sit in darkness under Stage 6.
He said the ANC presided over state capture, load shedding, and millions of people were unemployed.
“The ANC only serves the ANC,” said Hlabisa.
Politics