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Fellow South Africans,

It is a great honour to be here with you in Podile, in the beautiful province of Limpopo.

I love visiting Limpopo, not only because of its natural beauty, but because of the hope and potential I see in each and every resident here.

From Tzaneen to Bela Bela; from Makhado to Giyani, there is much potential. That is why the DA launched our manifesto in Polokwane nearly two months ago. That is why we are working harder than ever before to bring change to Limpopo.

Friends, because this is change that is desperately needed. Limpopo hasn’t been treated as it deserves to be by the ANC.

In fact, it has been abused and ignored. It is the forgotten province.

We see this right here in Podile in Ga Molepo.

We see taps without running water. We have seen schools without textbooks. We have seen poor governance and high unemployment. Worst of all, we see fellow South Africans without dignity.

Last year it was estimated that over 40 000 houses in this district did not have water available to them.

As a result, many members of this community walk long distances to the river to share water with the animals there. This water is not purified or clean. Meanwhile, the few taps that have been provided run dry.

This is a health risk to every resident here, and to their children.

It is an indignity which cannot be allowed to continue for a second longer.

That is why I have come to visit you today and see for myself. I want to help bring change to Podile.

I can tell you today that the DA will report what is happening in your village to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC).

We want a full investigation into the unconstitutional treatment of our people here in Ga-Molepo.

But I will not leave it there. I will also follow up on our request from last year for SAHRC to launch a comprehensive investigation into the water crisis which is being experienced across Limpopo. Because, the story of Podile is the story of many other people across Limpopo.

I am confident that the SAHRC will intervene to protect your rights. They did so after I walked in solidarity with members of the community of Joe Slovo in Brandfort. After I reported it to the SAHRC, the municipality was found guilty of violating the rights of the people and was ordered to fix the water problem.

But as we experienced in Brandfort, this won’t be enough. The reality is that we can only truly change the way the people are treated by a government, if we change the government that is responsible for the problem in the first place.

And the problem here is that the ANC does not deliver for the people. It puts its friends and senior politicians first.

That is why despite big annual budgets to rectify problems, there is still no water supply for many communities.

That is why millions in infrastructure grants are returned to Treasury every year, simply because municipalities fail to spend the money.

And that is why former Premier Cassel Mathale, who presided over the collapse of the Limpopo provincial government was not ‘fired’, but rather ‘redeployed’ to Parliament – to continue to get a nice salary at the taxpayer’s expense. As Gwede Mantashe explained, he was sent to Parliament ‘to take him off the heat’ and to give him ‘space to breathe’.

People who run their governments into the ground don’t need seats in Parliament so that they can have some “space”. They must be fired – finish and klaar.

What is even worse is that his movement was less to do with his poor record in government. He was moved because he supported the wrong faction in the ANC.

That is why he was “given space to breathe” while Premier Thandi Modise remains in office in the North West, buying R1.3 million luxury cars and overseeing the collapse of service delivery in her province.

You see, she currently supports the right faction; the faction of President Zuma; the faction that cares not about if you deliver for your people, but if you deliver for Jacob Zuma.

We see the consequences of this ANC culture in every province in South Africa. We even see it in Parliament.

The ANC Chief Whip is trying to cook up excuses for why he is delaying nominating members to serve on the ad hoc committee to investigate Nkandla.

He does so not because he is following “process”. His party certainly didn’t follow “process” when they were rushing job-killing bills through Parliament.

He does so because he knows to stay the Chief Whip he must protect President Zuma at all costs. He must put Jacob Zuma first and the people second.

This is the great shame of the ANC today. It is an ANC that has changed. I-Anc Ayisafani!

The ANC doesn’t like hearing this truth. That is why the SABC moved quickly to block our TV advert saying just this.

The truth hurts, they say. But it remains the truth. The ANC of today is not the ANC of President Nelson Mandela.

It doesn’t have to be like this. We can change this. We can put South Africa back on the path we set out on a nation in 1994. We can put the people first again.

This change must come at the ballot box. It must come by giving the DA, and our hard working Premier Candidate, Langa Bodlani, a chance for five years. Let him show you what he is capable of.

And you can do so without any worries, because our record speaks for itself. In the DA-run Western Cape, we spend more money on the poor and vulnerable communities than any other province in South Africa. And because of the DA, more people have access to water than in any other province in South Africa.

The DA is the only party that can bring about the change that is needed in this province. We are the only party that can deliver a clean government that is free of corruption and that can deliver basic services to its people.

We can bring this change to Limpopo, if you give Langa Bodlani a chance for five years.

Together, we can work together for change that creates jobs and cuts corruption.

Together, we can choose a better South Africa.

Together, we can choose a DA government in Limpopo.

Vote DA on 7 May!

Viva DA!