Johannesburg - The DA is launching its election manifesto today and the party’s KwaZulu-Natal leader and premier candidate Zwakele Mncwango says the manifesto is all encompassing.
The official opposition said it expected 20 000 of its members to descend on the Rand Stadium on Saturday to listen to leader Mmusi Maimane deliver its election manifesto.
As the election campaigning goes ahead, the DA has tried to to make inroads in rural areas and Mncwango said that the manifesto would resonate with voters there.
“Our manifesto is around five points and the first is to address the issue of jobs and if you talk of unemployment it affects everybody, whether in the rural areas or urban areas. But mainly those who are in rural areas are living in poverty and unemployed,” Mncwango said.
He said that they were also going to look into crime and their manifesto would focus on a need for a police service that is dedicated and well-trained in dealing with crime in the rural areas.
“Crime is rife in the rural areas but nobody is giving any attention to that and sometimes there are not enough resources in rural areas as if people in rural areas don’t pay tax and that is something we want to address,” said Mncwango.
He said that another critical issue for the party was border control and the securing of the country’s borders against those entering from foreign countries illegally.
“There is also the issue of corruption, which affects everybody. When we talk of corruption we don’t only talk of embezzlement, but we also talk of corruption such as cash for jobs and bribery.”
He also mentioned service delivery as another key factor in the manifesto because there is a housing backlog, sanitation and water, in particular, directly affecting people living in rural areas.