If you don’t use the opportunity to vote, things will stay the same
| Published date | 26 May 2021 |
| Author | John Steenhuisen |
| Publication title | Post |
But not everyone seems to share this urgency and this eagerness to go to the polls in October. Our opponents are trying their best to wriggle their way out of it.
They’re either simply not prepared for this campaign, or they fear what voters might say to them on the day. And so, they talk about postponing, and they make up excuses.
But we will have none of that. The DA is marching confidently towards October 27, ready for the challenge and the contest.
You must know that the DA is the only hope for turning South Africa around. We are the only party with the size, the reach, the vision, the policies, and the people, to be able to speak seriously and realistically about change.
We simply have to succeed and we have to do so soon. Every municipality, every ward, every voting district that turns blue in October is one step closer to this goal.
South Africa needs this election, this year, because change cannot wait.
It’s no secret that many of our towns and cities are literally falling apart.
The list of municipalities in critical condition is now longer than the list of those that still function properly.
Service delivery has collapsed in hundreds of towns. Taps are about to run dry in the Eastern Cape. Budgets are being slashed everywhere, from housing to street maintenance, to school toilets.
Municipalities owe billions to Eskom and are on the brink of being disconnected.
The massive local government failure, in recent years, has left many communities almost unliveable. And people have had enough of this.
People are angry and they have every right to be. We see service delivery protests every single day, right across the country.
Sometimes, just before elections, these protests actually bring some results. When the governing party realises that their failures could be punished, they quickly spring into action, with a few visible projects or promises.
However, for the rest of the time – for the other four-and-a-half years in between elections – these communities don’t see or hear from their government. Their pleas and protests are simply ignored.
But there is another form of protest that is guaranteed to get better results, and that is the protest you register with your vote.
That simple little action of drawing a cross, in a block on your ballot paper, carries more power and brings more change than a thousand tyres burnt and a thousand stones thrown.
That’s why...
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