Bridging the Western Cape Divide
RISE Mzansi National Leader, Songezo Zibi. Siyakwamkela Rhadebe, Bhungane
RISE Mzansi Members of the National Leadership Collective, Irfaan Mangera, and Prof. Nick Binedell
RISE Mzansi Members of the Western Cape Provincial Leadership Collective
RISE Mzansi Candidates, Organisers and Volunteers
Members of the Media
Abahlali baseKhayelitsha, apha sikhoyo
Residents of the Western Cape
Molweni, goeie more, good morning
My name is Axolile Notywala. And I am the Premier Candidate for RISE Mzansi in the Western Cape.
Let me start by saying thank you to all of you who decided to RISE and be with us here today, as we launch the RISE Mzansi Plan for the Western Cape.
This is a Plan for all the People of Western Cape, especially those who have been neglected by the political establishment.
We outline our plan for the province a few days after we marked one year of RISE Mzansi, on the 19th of April 2024.
A movement and political party that is not a breakaway of any other political party.
We are new and so are our leaders. Indeed, we are the ones we have all been waiting for.
This movement and political party was started by concerned South Africans, many of which were never politicians and were never involved in political parties before.
Turning one year is an amazing milestone. Today we are a political force to be reckoned with.
Today we are called “political mercenaries” in the Western Cape, and that is because we are doing something right.
We are doing what they have failed to do and will never do, which is to build and bridge all communities.
So, I want to say happy birthday to RISE Mzansi, happy birthday to us!
Happy birthday to you – the people who are building this movement and political party!
We have achieved this milestone because we are building together as a collective and because we are rising together.
RISE Mzansi is a movement for the people, by the people. Those people are all of you.
The people in Khayelitsha, Stellenbosch, Milnerton, Sea Point, Nyanga, Durbanville, Delft, Strand, Hout Bay, Kraaifontein, and Salt River.
Those people are all over this province.
So, thank you very much to all of you for everything over the past year.
But RISERS, this is just the beginning. Our work over the next 36-days demands that we do more to achieve success on 29 May 2024.
We are the new, capable leaders we have been waiting for and I know we will achieve building a safe, prosperous, equal and united Western Cape!
So today, together with these National and Provincial leaders, we are here to launch the RISE Mzansi plan for the Western Cape.
We are here to launch a political plan for a safe, equal, prosperous, and united province.
The people of the Western Cape need new leaders with a plan. You deserve new leaders who will ensure that everyone has access to the same rights and the same opportunities to create a safe, prosperous, equal and united province.
You deserve leaders who care. Iikhokheli ezikhathalayo.
Today we present The Bridge Western Cape Plan.
A RISE Mzansi plan to bridge the seen and unseen divides in the Western Cape.
Bahlali
Before I talk about The Bridging the Western Cape Divide Plan, it is important that I address something.
I want to address the issue of the DA and John Steenhuisen calling us as “political mercenaries” and suggesting that I am corrupt. Suggesting that we are corrupt.
I take serious offence to that.
Many will say this is politics and it is political. Yes, I agree this is politics.
But I take serious offence because what John Steenhuisen said is also dog whistle politics.
It is vile, unsophisticated and says a lot about the kind of leader he is. It says a lot about what the DA thinks about you and me.
The only thing John Steenhuisen knows about me is that I am young Black man contesting as the Western Cape Premier candidate for RISE Mzansi. I am the youngest of all the candidates I have seen announced.
For him to suggest that I am contesting in this province to steal, is racist. And to that I take serious offence.
In my work in civil society, I lost friends, and I got called names for acting against and exposing fraud and corruption in some organisations I was part of.
I have no regrets for my actions.
I have spoken out against and acted against corruption, and as we bridge the divides in the Western Cape I will continue to do so. It is our duty, all of us, not only to speak out against corruption but to deal with it.
I have spoken out against and acted against racism, and as we bridge the divides in the Western Cape I will continue to do so. It is our duty not only to speak out against racism but to deal with it.
John Steenhuisen and the DA must understand this and must get it in their heads: Lying and spreading misinformation about us will not stop us from doing the work that is needed with you in your communities that they have been neglected for 15 years. We will RISE with you in this province.
We have not come here. We are from here. And it is why we have committed ourselves to the work of serving the people of the Western Cape.
This is our home! Asiyindawo. Ons gaan nerens nie.
Fellow residents of the Western Cape
I am one of you.
I was raised here, in Khayelitsha by a working single mother.
I was raised in an informal settlement where we used the bush or a bucket as a toilet – as sadly too many still do today.
As an adult, I have seen the diversity and possibility in our province. I have seen what is possible.
But, in my activism over the past 15 years, I also know what stands in the way of this possibility, for the majority of our people.
More than anywhere in South Africa, we, in this province are divided.
We are divided by race, we are divided by class, and we are divided by space.
There are those who live in safe communities, and there those, like many of you who live in some of the most dangerous communities in the world, here in the Western Cape. Where children can’t go to school because of shootings.
I don’t have to tell you more about your reality of hearing gunshots when you sleep, and hearing gunshots when you wake up, gunshots during the day, gunshots every day.
We all deserve freedom from fear.
There are those who live in the ‘best run’ municipality of Cape Town. They have running water, clean toilets and they have electricity, at least when there are no rolling blackouts, like now.
Then there are those who are still using bucket toilets, in 2024, hundreds of thousands in the Western Cape, using bucket toilets. Those who have no access to electricity and have their water cut off because they are poor.
One of those Western Cape residents is Jasmine Jacobs from Rocklands in Mitchells Plain, who is with us today. Jasmine is a pensioner and lives with her mother who is in a wheelchair, also a pensioner. There are 7 of them in their home. They all depend on the pension money they get as there is no one is employed in the family.
Jasmine and her family have not had water for three months now. The DA led City of Cape Town cut off their water because they are poor. They cannot afford to pay. When they buy electricity for R50 they get only 7 units of electricity.
Jasmine and her family are just one of hundreds of families suffering from this criminality in this province. There are many others, from Manenberg to Concordia in George.
Jasmine, you, and many poor families in this province deserve a government with new leaders that care.
There are also those, like us, who live in the urban centres in our province, and there are those who live in the rural parts of the Western Cape and experience some of the extreme levels of poverty and neglect.
These divides are unacceptable. They worsen the inequalities, and they worsen the poverty in this province.
But these divides have been sustained by the DA for the past 15 years and by the ANC for the past 30 years. We need new leaders.
My mission for the past 15 years has been to dismantle what the DA and the ANC continues to sustain.
Today I present what we will do as RISE Mzansi as part of our Bridge Plan:
RISE Mzansi will Bridge the Western Cape divide by making all communities safe for everyone
We must ensure that there is security for all, no matter where we live. No one is safe until we all are safe.
RISE Mzansi will lobby the SAPS to increase its crime intelligence capacity to be able to find the illegal guns and drugs in our streets and confiscate them systematically.
As a provincial government and part of our oversight role, we will play an active role in monitoring the destruction of guns and drugs that are confiscated to ensure that they don’t end up back in our streets.
We will advocate for the deployment of more SAPS staff, particularly experienced detectives, to high violent crime areas.
We will ensure that drug and alcohol abuse prevention programs are properly resourced, and that there are rehabilitation and treatment centres in all communities with properly trained social workers.
We must make illegal drug use and abuse unfashionable in our communities.
RISE Mzansi will Bridge the Western Cape divide through spatial justice and integrated human settlements.
We must end the spatial apartheid that is still so visible here.
RISE Mzansi will conduct a provincial public land audit, and while this audit is being conducted, we will place a moratorium on the sale of public land. We must make sure that public land is prioritised for its social value and not for profit.
We will make large pieces of public land such as military bases and golf courses available for social housing, parks, recreation centres, and more.
The Ysterplaat, Wingfield and Youngsfield military bases could be used to house up to 67,000 families if redeveloped.
We will also relocate provincial government offices out of prime and high-density areas to free up buildings in the inner-city for social housing.
Together with municipalities in the province, we will develop a comprehensive plan for all informal settlements and backyarders. A plan that prioritises dignified basic services for all and security of tenure for residents of informal settlements.
Cape Town is the most expensive city in South Africa to live in. We will push for rent regulation and control in the province so that people are encouraged into cities rather than driven out of them.
RISE Mzansi will develop and implement an integrated public transport systems that allows commuters to use a single card that allows for a single-fare travel within a city on different modes of transport.
We will also investigate the feasibility of Metrorail, the bus companies and taxi associations providing discounted fares to the elderly, students and job seekers.
RISE Mzansi will Bridge the Western Cape divide by creating dignified jobs.
We must provide quality and sustainable jobs with dignity.
RISE Mzansi is committed to creating better jobs that offer real opportunity. We aim to create up to 400 000 jobs that pay living wages.
We will launch a Provincial Service Programme where all school-leavers and graduates will be eligible to participate in a year-long work experience programme and receive a stipend.
We will support tourism initiatives that benefit people from all communities and that share the province’s rich heritage and culture.
The tourism economy must be an inclusive one. This requires all communities to be safe so that tourists can visit townships and contribute to the township economy.
We will work with municipalities to remove unfair by-laws that create unnecessary zoning barriers for small businesses and informal traders.
We must prioritise transforming the economy of townships through effective town planning, localisation, and attract new capital into these areas.
We will establish a provincial Enterprise Development Fund, using the existing B-BBEE act, to enable direct capital provision by the private sector for businesses in townships.
RISE Mzansi will Bridge the Western Cape divide through better and accessible schooling for all.
We must tackle the dropout rate, build more schools, hire more teachers, and address the inequities in education provision.
We will ensure that all schools are safe and supportive, by working for zero tolerance of weapons, drug use, bullying and especially sexual and gender-based violence.
RISE Mzansi has a plan to implement universal early childhood development (ECD), which applies to the first thousand days – or six years – of a child’s life. Rolling out of universal ECD means providing all families with child-care that is safe and of quality during the day, while they are working or seeking jobs.
We will re-affirm the role of our teachers as professionals who are qualified, respected, and must be supported.
We will lobby the Department of Basic Education to include entrepreneurial training in the syllabus.
Residents of the Western Cape
You deserve a government with new leaders that care. A government with the Bridging the Western Cape Divide Plan, so that you do not have to worry about your children getting electrocuted and dying, like it happened Marikana and Klipfontein near the Philippi because the DA government has not provided you with electricity.
You deserve a government with new leaders that care. A government with the Bridge Plan, so that you do not have to worry about your children getting shot and killed by stray bullets in or outside their school like it happened in Mitchells Plain and in Athlone, because the ANC and DA governments have not removed the illegal guns on our streets.
You deserve a government with new leaders that care. A government with the Bridging the Western Cape Divides Plan, so that you do not have to worry about your children getting poisoned, hospitalised and dying like it happened in SST and in Site C, because the DA led government has failed to collected rubbish in your communities for months.
You all deserve better.
The last thing I want to say is this.
The DA and ANC, if they you haven’t seen them in your community yet, they are coming. Bayeza.
They might come with t-shirts and food parcels. Indlala ininzi phandle apha. Thatha ukutya. Take the food. There is too much poverty.
Take the t-shirts. Winter is coming you might need something to sleep with.
But on the 29 of May 2024, it is you who must make a choice. To either keep the old and uncaring leaders in power, or to choose new, ethical, capable and caring leaders.
When that time comes, and you are in front of the ballot box with a ballot paper in your hand, think about the past 30 years of ANC rule and the quality of your life today. Think about just one person. Think about Bheki Cele of the ANC, what has he done for you?
Think about the past 15 years in the Western Cape under DA rule and the quality of your life today. Think about just one person. Think about JP Smith of the DA, what has he done for you?
I believe I know your choice. But if you don’t have a choice yet. RISE Mzansi is that choice on the ballot. Songezo Zibi is the face you will see on the ballot, he is your choice on the ballot.
So I present the Bridge Western Cape Plan to you today, and I say we need new leaders.
Masihambeni siyoxelela abantu ngale RISE Mzansi, about this Plan to bridge the divide in the Western Cape. Let’s go give people hope who have lost so much of it when it comes to politics. Let’s go win people’s trust for the Western Cape to RISE.
On Wednesday, 29 May 2024, let’s make the right choice. Vote for new leaders. Vote for RISE Mzansi!
I RISE. We RISE. Together, we RISE
RISE Mzansi RISE.
Ndiyabulela. Baie Dankie. Thank you! RISE Mzansi Western Cape Premier Candidate, Axolile Notywala