JOHN STEENHUISEN | Destruction of SA by 30 years of disastrous ANC governance treasonous

The DA’s burning flag advert presents a stark warning that SA’s economy and democratic institutions are under threat from an ANC/EFF/MK doomsday coalition. Unsurprisingly, the metaphor used to convey this  message has resulted in a flurry of predictable manufactured outrage.

It is not surprising that President Cyril Ramaphosa jumped into the fray, labelling the DA’s advert “treasonous” and “despicable”. The ANC is in  decline and set to lose its electoral majority for the first time. 

But South Africans are not fooled by Ramaphosa’s  attempts to distract the public from the destruction wrought by 30 years of  ANC governance. Voters know   their daily lives have been harmed by the ANC’s systemic corruption and service delivery failure, and not a television advert.

Mr Ramaphosa, it is your government that has committed treason by burning our institutions and economy  through gross misgovernance and corruption. Our advert outlines an uncomfortable truth — do voters choose the DA on election day or do they risk facing a doomsday coalition that will erode our democratic foundations, hollow out what remains of  state institutions and leave the SA economy in ruins?

Treason is the expansion of the unemployment rate from 20% in 1994 to 32.9% in 2023. This  crisis has been caused by destructive economic policies that  have left almost a third of South Africans without hope of a better future.

Treason is your failed BBBEE policy, which is neither broad-based nor empowering. This policy has failed to uplift the majority of disadvantaged South Africans and instead served  for the repeated enrichment of a small group of politically-connected cadres. 

Treason is the  burning of Eskom to the ground,  disrupting  lives, destroying small businesses and leaving our economy without the prospect of growth. The extent of SA’s energy crisis cannot be understated, with the cost of blackouts to the  economy being about  R300bn in 2022 alone.

Treason is the gross mismanagement of the  nation’s finances through reckless expenditure and irresponsible borrowing. This has resulted in our debt-to-GDP ratio rising to an unacceptable 73.9% in 2023. Interest payments are now the fastest-growing expenditure item in the  budget. This is diverting taxpayers' money away from service delivery  to ever-increasing interest payments, which now total about  R1bn a day. 

Treason is the systematic destruction of  state-owned enterprises through corruption and mismanagement, leading to heartbreaking retrenchments, as seen at the Post Office this year. Over the past five years, your government has burnt over R200bn of taxpayers' money through SOE bailouts, yet only R1m was returned as a dividend. This disgraceful waste  has delivered no tangible results and diverted resources.

Treason is the destruction of SA’s railways, which, a  decade ago, supported over 500-million passenger trips, yet today it barely reaches 30-million. In addition, 3,636km of freight railway track have fallen into disuse since 1994. The destruction of  railways has made commuting  more expensive and dangerous, and the transportation of freight  is increasingly strained.

Treason is the inability of the government to keep South Africans safe and hold criminals to account. A lack of policing capacity has led to violent crime becoming part of daily life, with about  84 murders a day. The ANC government has failed to successfully hold those responsible for state capture to account, from the failure to extradite the Gupta brothers to the concoction of an elaborate special remission scheme to protect Jacob Zuma from having to return to prison.   

The DA is not scared of the ANC’s threats of court action over our advert. These threats amount to a clampdown on legitimate political opposition. South Africans must be warned that these threats to  freedoms and rights serve as an ominous preview of what may arise.

Every time the DA has dared to tell an uncomfortable truth, we have been vilified, only to be later proven correct. This has come to pass on cadre deployment, BBBEE, state capture and “Stop Zuma”, and it will be true of our current  warning unless voters take  action this election day. We stand firm in our commitment to speak the truth about the prospects of a disastrous doomsday coalition arising after May 29.

What political commentators, who howl about our metaphorical depiction of a burning flag, do not realise is that the end of the advert brings a ray of hope. It depicts the flag restored to its full glory, restoring hope that our beautiful nation can still be rescued. It indeed can be … but the clock is ticking. On election day, voters must rally behind the only party with the skills, a proven good governance track record and the size required to save SA. On election day, voters must come out in force and vote DA.

• Steenhuisen is DA leader