VIVA GAUTENG, viva.

VIVA GAUTENG, viva.

Today we gather here to make history.

At Walter Sisulu Square, great men and woman have gathered before to take destiny into their own hands.

Today we take our destiny into our own hands.

Gauteng is the province of greatness.

This is the Province of the Hector Pietersen Memorial and Constitution Hill.

This is the Province of the Union Buildings, the seat of our national government.
Gauteng, our Province of greatness, is filled with possibility.

It is where our Democratic Constitution was signed into law.

It is the place of gold, where people come to find their dreams, and fulfil their hopes.

This is the Province of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the heartbeat of South Africa’s economy.

But the potential of this great province lies not in its economic opportunities, its mineral wealth and its
international connections.

Gauteng’s potential for greatness lies with its people. People like you and me.

People who want the chance to work hard and live a better life.

People who hope that change will come.

Today I want to talk about that potential.

I want to tell you the story of a liberation movement that left its people behind.

And I want to talk about what we, the people of Gauteng, need to do to get ahead.

I am asking the citizens of this great province to make a new political choice.

The time has come to reject corruption and choose jobs.

The time has come for us to choose our own destiny.

My name is Mmusi Maimane. I invite you to join me in bringing positive change to Gauteng, as the next
Premier of this great Province.

Let us stand together and change the course of history.

Our destiny is in our hands.

I remember another time when we joined together in a common cause. We were united against the evil
system of apartheid that oppressed us.

Times were tough back then but we stuck together.

Our leaders were leaders, but they worked with us. And they led by example.

They led us towards the promise of freedom.

We felt a connection with those great leaders, past and present.

Great men and women like Albert Luthuli, Helen Joseph, Oliver Tambo, Robert Sobukwe, Helen Suzman, Nelson
Mandela and Steve Biko.

They gave us hope that we would change the system that oppressed us.

I grew up not far from here in Dobsonville. We didn’t have much.

But my parents worked hard and they were dedicated to our family. My mother worked as a cashier. My
father worked at the local lock making company.
 
These jobs put food on the table.

My parents made sacrifices so that my brothers, sisters and I could get the education and the opportunities they never had.
 
What the apartheid system did was wreck the dreams of my parents and the dreams of so many others like them.

And that is why, like everybody on my street, I supported the liberation movement, and voted for the ANC.
Back then, the ANC embodied hope and change.

We believed that it would take us from the dark to the light, from oppression to freedom.

We believed the ANC would lead us to the promised land.

Indeed, the ANC brought us the hope of a better life.

President Nelson Mandela reconciled our divided nation. We began to believe in ourselves.

And when President Mbeki stood up, and proclaimed that he was an African, born of the people of this continent, our spirits soared. We shared his pride.

President Mandela and Mbeki helped get our economy on track.

They presided over the roll out of RDP houses, water, sanitation and electricity.

The social grants they introduced were a safety net for the poor.

The years have past and times have changed. I find myself wondering what happened to that era of great leadership.

Today, instead of opportunities for all, we only see opportunities for some.

We see a system of insiders and outsiders. People with political connections get rich, and everyone else is
left to struggle on their own.

I see people struggling to get jobs.

I see people without access to basic services like electricity and sanitation. And when people exercise their
right to protest against their conditions, they are beaten and killed by the police.

I don’t know about you, but this is not the change I wanted to see.

That is why, like so many of you here, and like so many people across this great province, I am making a different political choice.

I am making that choice because I believe in the values of Nelson Mandela – non-racialism, selflessness and opportunities for all.

Some people don’t agree with the choice we are making. They say we are betraying the struggle.

But the people who truly betrayed the struggle are the people who abuse their power to make themselves rich.

You see, we didn’t leave the ANC – the ANC left us.

The ANC left us behind, when all we ever wanted was the chance to get ahead.

That is why we are making a different choice; we are choosing a party that will cut corruption and create jobs.

Our destiny is in our hands.

I am proud to call the Democratic Alliance my political home. It is a party that is working hard to make South Africa a better place.

Every one of our policies is designed to put right the wrongs of apartheid and to fight for equality.
That is why the DA supports Black Economic Empowerment, Land Reform and Social Grants.

We support genuinely broad-based BEE; not BEE that empowers the same people who always get deals and tenders, while the rest of us remain unempowered.

Everybody who suffered under Apartheid must benefit from BEE, not just the friends and family of politicians.

Quite simply: We support BEE that creates jobs.

We support land reform that gives people back the land that was taken from them. We support land reform that is done sustainably so that all may benefit from the richness of our soil.

And we must hold title deeds for the land, to make ownership real, and to let us access capital against the land.

We support social grants that help lift people out of poverty.

Social grants must never make people dependent on the government for their survival. Social grants must be the first step on a ladder towards prosperity.

And I am committed to creating jobs.

We know that a job is a pathway out of poverty and the key to restoring dignity.

Every day you read stories in the newspaper about how many jobs are being lost. But you don’t read about the indignity it causes to the people who lose those jobs.

You don’t read about their children who suffer. And you don’t feel their pain.

In Diepsloot, last week, I spoke to Refilwe who told me of her difficulty in supporting her family with what they need. She has no permanent work. Her home sleeps seven people in two rooms. All she wants is a job, and education for her grandchildren. She wants to go to bed at night knowing that she has worked to give her family the things they need.

All she wants is opportunity.

All she wants is change.

It is not too much to ask for. Is it?

I know what it’s like to have relatives who don’t have work. Who stay at home. Who wake up in the morning to a life without purpose. Who turn to drugs like Nyaope to escape.

Nyaope is destroying lives.

Young people are stealing from their parents to buy it.

Children being are being murdered and old people are being raped by those on Nyaope.

We have to get our youth off Nyaope.

And the best way to do that is to create the jobs we need to give people the dignity they deserve.

My number one priority is to get the economy of Gauteng working, so that we can create jobs.

We have to create jobs.

No longer must the people of this province live without work.

Job creation is my top priority because nothing robs people of their dignity like unemployment.

Jacob Zuma’s ANC has let us all down on jobs. Young people come out of education without a job to go into. Parents and families are struggling to make ends meet.
 
The ANC say it is hard, but they don’t find it hard to create jobs for themselves. We can’t accept excuses. Gauteng is the richest province in Africa. It can create jobs.
 
Let me set out 5 ways to make it happen:

First, you start with getting rid of corruption in government. Too much of your tax money is going into the pockets of the ANC and their friends, when it should be creating jobs for you and your children. Corruption is sucking the lifeblood out of our government. By stamping it out we can pay for the policies that work for you.
Second, you open up the province for business. Not to help big business people get rich. To help businesses, big and small, to start and grow so that they can create jobs.

I am inspired by people who innovate, by people who make a difference.

We can transform our economy and create millions of jobs if we give them the space and the support to put their ideas into practice.

The spirit of entrepreneurship is strong in our country.

We are a nation of entrepreneurs.

There are thriving car washes, food stalls, hair salons and chisa nyama on every corner in every community I visit.

Government should never do anything to hold back people who work hard to get ahead in life.

That is why, if I am elected Premier, I will establish an academy for entrepreneurs who need support and guidance to start their businesses. To help people launch their careers, we will introduce a paid work apprenticeship to give young people work experience.
 
Third, we will introduce a provincial youth wage subsidy programme so that the young people of this province don’t get left behind.

Fourth, we will do everything in our power to stop e-tolls.

We were never asked if we wanted e-tolls; we were never given a choice.

The only choice we have is to vote against the party that brought us e-tolls.

E-tolls will kill jobs and make people poorer.

I know that we can create jobs in Gauteng. It will be hard work, but we can do it if we work together.

Fifth, to ensure that our young people are ready for work, we will deliver a quality education to every boy and every girl of Gauteng.

We will do it by making sure every child has the textbooks and resources they need.

We will do it by supporting dedicated teachers and rooting out those who fail our children.

We have to destroy the legacy of Bantu education.

There is no reason why a child from Soweto cannot have the same education as a child from Sandton.

We can create opportunities for all in Gauteng if we join hands in this campaign of hope and change.

Our destiny is in our hands.

We stand here on the doorstep of history. We don’t have to knock on this door. We don’t need to wait for the door to be answered.

The door is open. All we need to do is walk through it.

With this one, single election in Gauteng we can make history. We can change not just Gauteng, but South Africa.

Let Gauteng show South Africa what change looks like. Let us show this government that they cannot take our votes for granted.

Last week Premier Mokonyane said to protestors that she doesn’t want their dirty votes.

To her we say: there is no such thing as a dirty vote.

There is only a dirty government.

And we are coming to clean the dirt away!

We can change the lives of every citizen of this province.

The young boy from Dobsonville, growing up on the same streets that I did.

The grandmother in Alexandra who yearns for better opportunities for her grandchildren.

The young women in Mamelodi who has finished school and has given up looking for work because for three years she has only heard “no”.

The dreams of these people motivate me every day. And it would be my greatest honour to serve them and to serve you, as Premier.

This campaign does not start today.

It did not start when I walked the streets to reach every corner of this Province.

It did not start when I was elected by my Party as the candidate for Premier. No.

In fact, the campaign does not start with me at all.

It starts with you.

You have the power.

And you have the responsibility.

Your destiny is in your hands.

You and every other person who marks their ballot paper in this election has a choice to make.

You can choose another five years of more of the same. Or you can choose change.

Real change.

Change that brings jobs.

Change that brings hope.

I know that some people are afraid of change.

People fear change because they are worried that things might get even worse. They think that change means going back to the old days of apartheid.

I want to pledge to you today that we will never allow South Africa to go backwards.

We need to go forwards. But going forward means embracing change.

Nobody ever went forward by staying in the same place.

Give me a chance to bring change to Gauteng.

Give me a chance to bring jobs to Gauteng.

That’s all I ask.

I would like to say thank you to every activist, every supporter and every member who has already played a huge role in this campaign.

You go to every town, every street and every corner.

You are the backbone of our campaign.

You are going to make the difference when the final vote is counted.

This is the Province of greatness.

This is the Province of possibility.

Now, let us realise that greatness.

Let us realise every bit of that possibility.

Let us bring about change.

Let us bring about a new hope.

Let Gauteng be great.

Let Gauteng be for the people again.

Our destiny is in our hands.

Together we can bring change to Gauteng!