by John Steenhuisen MP – Leader of the Democratic Alliance
Note to Editors: The following speech was delivered this evening, by the Leader of the Democratic Alliance, John Steenhuisen, during an engagement with Senior Leaders of the DA and Senior Members of the Media in Bruma, Johannesburg.
The DA’s latest TV election advert may be viewed on https://youtu.be/WcdZRAP3cn0.
Ladies and gentlemen of the media, my fellow South Africans,
Welcome to this evening’s engagement.
We have invited you all here this evening to premier the DA’s newest election advertisement which will be airing from this evening across all television, radio, and social media platforms.
But we have also invited you, as senior and pivotal media professionals, to join us this evening for a much-needed engagement on the upcoming general election taking place in just over three weeks.
The Democratic Alliance remains a fervent believer in, and supporter of, a free and unhindered press as the cornerstone of our democracy and, in light of recent utterances from the governing party, which seek to curtail your crucial work for our country, we felt it best to recommit ourselves to you and your profession by hosting this engagement this evening.
You are most welcome here, and thank you for taking the time out of what is perhaps your only day of rest to be with us this evening.
The message conveyed in our latest election ad, which will occupy a 30-second slot on all national airwaves from today, sounds the most urgent warning to our constitutional democracy since 1994, which is why it warrants a proper engagement with all of you this evening.
What you will see in this advertisement is a symbolic representation of the future that awaits South Africa if people do not vote for the DA.
It is a warning of what this country’s future will look like under a Doomsday Coalition between the ANC, the EFF, and perhaps also MK and mercenary small parties like the Patriotic Alliance.
But before we air the piece, I’d like to take you back to April last year, to the DA’s Federal Congress.
At this event, I became the first political leader to warn the South African public that an ANC-EFF Doomsday Coalition could arise after the 2024 election.
I’d like to read to you a bit of what I said at the time, and I quote:
“The Doomsday Coalition will expropriate property without compensation and abolish private property rights.
The Doomsday Coalition will nationalise and destroy foreign investment, businesses, banks and mines.
The Doomsday Coalition will plunge this country into ethnic and racial conflict the likes of which it has never witnessed before.
The cold, hard truth is that the Doomsday Coalition between the ANC and EFF has already taken over Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni, with the help of its little proxies.
Next year, it will be knocking on the doors of the Union Buildings.
This is a fact that should send shivers down the spines of every patriot and freedom loving person in this country.”
Since the DA became the first party to warn about the imminent danger posed by an ANC-EFF coalition – not only to our economy, but to our very democracy – a series of a events have only heightened this risk.
Since I first outlined it 13 months ago, the working relationship between the ANC and EFF has only deepened in places like Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Nelson Mandela Bay.
In every single place where the Doomsday Coalition already governs, the consequences have been catastrophic.
Basic service delivery has collapsed, looting runs rampant, taps run dry and life gets harder for everyone.
Despite this overwhelming evidence, there are still some in the media who have tried to dismiss these warnings as so-called “scaremongering.”
But a message is only scaremongering when it is untrue.
In South Africa today, it is a cold, hard fact that the ANC and EFF already co-govern in some of the most important cities in our country.
And, as the national and provincial elections have approached, there has been even rapid further “toenadering” between the ANC and EFF.
We have seen it here in Gauteng, where the ANC’s Panyaza Lesufi is clearly setting the table to go into coalition with the EFF at provincial level.
This will mean that the industrial heartland of South Africa will be under the control of radical populists who will destroy what is left of Gauteng’s economy.
We now also have Julius Malema on record that the EFF will give its votes to the ANC on the conditions that property is expropriated without compensation, that mines are nationalised, and that Floyd Shivambu – the very person implicated in looting VBS bank – becomes finance minister.
And just this past week, we had the President of Cosatu, Zingiswa Losi – a key ANC alliance partner – openly saying that they want a “leftist coalition” with the EFF.
We have also seen how the markets and the Rand are already being affected by the fear of Doomsday.
This is a clear signal that allowing the ANC and EFF to take over will result in capital flight and the outright collapse of the South African economy, plunging this country into hardship the likes of which only seen in countries like Venezuela and Zimbabwe.
Earlier today, we were shocked to learn that Shell is set to withdraw its operations from South Africa – just days after learning that Anglo-American may similarly divest from our country.
These are clear and present warning signs that investor confidence is already plummeting because of the terrifying prospect of an ANC-EFF government, which will lead to a jobs bloodbath and plunge even more millions of people into desperate poverty.
This is the time to remind ourselves of Maya Angelou’s famous saying: when someone tells you who they are, believe them.
In this case we should say: now that senior leaders in the ANC and EFF have told you that their plan is to form a Doomsday Coalition, believe them.
Media colleagues who dismiss an interrogation of these facts as mere “scaremongering” are engaged in irresponsible reporting based on a woefully – and perhaps wilfully – naïve determination to turn a blind eye to what is right before us.
But the DA will not turn a blind eye to the existential risk posed to our democracy, to our economy and to our very future by the facts that are right before our eyes.
We believe it is our patriotic duty as responsible citizens of this country to inform the electorate that the future of every South African family is in danger from the impending takeover of power by the ANC-EFF Doomsday Coalition.
I have never believed in beating around the bush, and I have always been a straight shooter.
So here’s the straight-up truth: provincial and national coalition governments between the ANC, the EFF and their fellow radical populists will set South Africa on fire.
This same straight-shooting message is what you are about to see in our latest advertisement.
You will see that, if voters sit back and allow the ANC and EFF to take over, South Africa will be burnt to ashes.
To be absolutely clear so that there can be no misunderstanding: the visuals you are about to see do not represent what the DA wants to see happening in South Africa.
They represent what we fear will happen if voters do not come out in their millions on the 29th of May to stop the ANC-EFF Doomsday Coalition dead in its tracks.
But, unsettling as it is to watch this video confront the reality of how the South African dream will burn if we allow the ANC and EFF to take over, it also ends on a hopeful note by showing that all is not lost.
The video tells voters that it is not yet too late to prevent Doomsday and keep the South African dream alive.
As depicted on-screen, we can stop our flag from burning entirely, and reweave its threads to represent the consolidated dream of a united and prosperous country that we all share.
The final seconds of this advertisement offer voters the solution to prevent South Africa from going up in flames.
For the simple truth conveyed by this advertisement, is that the only way to prevent ANC-EFF Doomsday, is for people to come out in their millions on the 29th of May to vote for the DA.
Just like we have been the only party honest enough to warn South Africans about the risk of Doomsday, the DA has also consistently been the only party that offers voters a way out of this crisis.
Once again, I quote from my speech delivered at Congress in April last year:
“Fortunately, there is one – and only one – insurance policy against the ANC-EFF Doomsday Coalition.
And that is to vote for the Democratic Alliance.
Because the DA is the only party that is big enough, and strong enough, to stop Doomsday.
The DA is the only party with the size, the resources and the track record to oppose and defeat the Doomsday Coalition.”
But the DA’s efforts to prevent Doomsday did not end there.
We are also walking the talk.
As I made clear at Congress last year, the very reason why the DA took the unprecedented step of committing to what I then called the Moonshot Pact – but which is now known as the Multi-Party Charter for South Africa – is because of our determination to defeat the Doomsday Coalition.
Right from the start, the DA was honest enough to take the risk of Doomsday so seriously that we even took the historic decision to reach across the aisle to work with likeminded opposition parties to prevent Doomsday.
My fellow South Africans,
The moment that the DA has been warning about for over a year, has now arrived.
In just 24 days, our country goes to the polling booths to vote in the most important election in our democratic history.
As the DA’s latest advertisement demonstrates, we face a clear binary choice in this election that will determine whether we resuscitate our South African dream – or whether our dreams are burnt to ashes.
After the 29th of May, South Africa will either be governed by a Doomsday Coalition between the ANC, the EFF, possibly MK as well as small party mercenaries that are outside the Multi-Party Charter.
Or South Africa will be governed by a new multi-party government, with the DA fulfilling our role as the strong anchor party, based on our size and our track record of good governance.
I call upon the people of South Africa to engage seriously with the urgent message conveyed by this advertisement.
I repeat that there is only one way to prevent ANC-EFF Doomsday, and that is to vote for the DA.
In this election, a vote for the DA is not only a vote for a strong and experienced party to anchor a new government to rescue South Africa.
It is also a vote for the biggest possible roadblock to prevent and oppose the ANC-EFF nexus wherever it rears its ugly head.
My message to the people of South Africa is clear: don’t be responsible for unleashing Doomsday on South Africa by staying at home on Election Day.
Don’t sit back and allow the ANC and EFF to set your and your children’s future on fire.
It is now the patriotic duty of every freedom loving South African who wants to rescue our country from ANC-EFF Doomsday, to make sure they come out and vote for the DA on the 29th of May.
Because, in this election, the stakes are just too high to stay at home.
Thank you.