In 2024, the single greatest threat to South Africa’s democracy, freedom, and to the South African dream, is the African National Congress (ANC).

So said Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen in the debate on the President’s State of the Nation Address (SoNA), on Tuesday.

President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered his eighth SoNA last week, in which he told the story of Tintswalo, a child of democracy, born in 1994, and meant to represent someone who had reaped the benefits of freedom, under the ANC government.

In his SoNA debate speech, Steenhuisen took up Ramaphosa’s analogy, drawing out the rest of Tintswalo’s hypothetical life under ANC rule.

He said while her childhood may have begun with hope and a promise for a better life, as an adult, Tintswalo had felt the effects of corruption over many years, as well as crime and poverty, dashing her hopes for a better life.

“She lost her livelihood, her home, and her father. Her South African dream lay in ruins. Tintswalo is done waiting for the ANC to change. She has accepted that it never will. She acknowledges the opportunities she got as a young person, which her parents never had. But she now thinks about the future of her own family above all else. You see, Mr President, like millions of other South Africans, Tintswalo cannot afford to live in the past. She must survive in the reality of what South Africa is in 2024, not in the memory of what South Africa was in 1994. For here is the hard truth, Mr President, whether you like it or not: you have betrayed Tintswalo’s South African dream,” Steenhuisen said.

Using other stories, he went on to lay out other scenarios of hardship that other South Africans might be facing, such as gang violence, unemployment, a lack of energy and water, hunger, a crumbling port system and vital skills fleeing the country for better opportunities.

Steenhuisen continued his election-focussed speech by stating that the ANC must be removed from power.

“When the ANC says that 2024 is the year we must defend our freedom, they are right. We must defend our freedom – from the ANC,” he said.

He called out Ramaphosa for allegedly protecting his deputy, Paul Mashatile, who has been accused of corruption and said such a President was an existential threat to freedom.

Steenhuisen stressed the importance of voting in the upcoming elections and had a clear message for Ramaphosa.

“Mr President, you recently made the baseless and dangerous claim that mysterious foreign agents want to bring about “regime change” in South Africa. Let me assure you: what is coming your way in this election, is not regime change by foreigners. It is democratic change, by the people of South Africa. Voting out a failed governing party is not a threat to democracy. It is the ultimate vindication of democracy. And it is the only way to rescue our South African dream,” Steenhuisen said.

The DA leader pointed out his party’s 'blueprint to rescue South Africa', which was recently announced and promised comprehensive legislative reforms.

He presented the DA as the alternative to the ANC, particularly in light of the recent Constitutional Court ruling which required the ANC to hand over the records of its cadre deployment committee to the DA within five days.

The DA is hoping to use the records to show that the committee set the foundation for State capture and is the reason for a collapse of service delivery.

Steenhuisen said he expected the ANC to abide by the court ruling and also claimed that Ramaphosa would also be implicated in State capture, once the records were handed over.

“After all the damage and destruction wrought during the 15 wasted years under [former President Jacob] Zuma and Ramaphosa, the 2024 election is sadly not yet about truly fulfilling the dream of 1994. Instead, this election is about keeping the dream alive,” the DA leader said.

He warned of a dead dream for South Africa if the ANC clung to power, particularly through a coalition with the Economic Freedom Fighters, and endorsed a new multi-party government with the DA at the helm, to “rescue our South African dream”.