Build One SA (Bosa) leader Mmusi Maimane says if Nelson Mandela were alive today, he would vote for his party.
Maimane told party supporters at a final election rally yesterday at Ellis Park arena in Johannesburg that Mandela’s vision of South Africa had found a new home in Bosa.
“If you want President Maimane in the country, you need to turn out and vote and put us in the room where we would bring change for all people in South Africa,” Maimane said, prompting a chant from the audience: “Our mini Mandela”.
He said that unlike the governing ANC’s election messaging, which was primarily based on invoking the names of the party’s former leaders, Bosa wanted South Africans to vote for the future and not the past.
Let us free ourselves from liberators
“They will ask us to vote for our ancestors and look backward. We must free ourselves from liberators who want to take us back to the darkness.”
Maimane said Mandela ran his race, and it was now time for a new leader to emerge and deliver his vision. “This election is not about old parties but about a new, fresh vision for the future. It is not about big or small, but about old and new.”
He continued: “Let the ANC take its pension and relax. Let’s bring competent leaders of Bosa to run the government and take the country forward.”
He said that only Bosa could deliver a government free from corruption, a smaller cabinet, and a coalition of the opposition. This will end state capture and establish a government with trustworthy leaders.
Maimane said change was naturally difficult. He said it made sense why the markets and even civil servants were worried. They are nervous about the constitution of the next administration.
Don’t vote for your fears
“There will be a temptation to vote for the-devil-you-know, but it does not change that it is still the devil. I’m here to say, don’t vote for your fears – vote for your hopes,” he said.
“Enough is enough,” Maimane chanted, to loud cheers from the audience. “It is not going to be prosperity for some and poverty for all in South Africa,” he said.
Maimane also took a swipe at his former party, the DA. He highlighted the dichotomies in the poverty in the Coloured township of Bishop Lavis and the wealth and opulence of the small leafy suburb of Bishopscourt.
He said at Bishop Lavis children have children, no one works, and there’s poverty all around.
“At Bishopscourt the streets are paved, the lights are on and there are more jobs in every household,” he said.
The former DA leader said the inequalities are the story of South Africa. He drew parallels between the squalor of Alexandra and the splendour of Sandton in Gauteng.
Change is coming
“Can you feel it? Change is coming. Change is in the air,” he said.
He promised that when Bosa is government it will ensure that there is a job in each household. The economy will grow at 5% each year. A total of 120,000 new police officers will be appointed to fight crime. Parents will receive a voucher and choose which school their children will attend.
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