Announcing Premier candidates for the North West and Mpumalanga on Thursday at the party’s headquarters, Nkululeko House, in Johannesburg, leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA) Mmusi Maimane says only the best candidates were selected to lead the One South Africa For All campaign.

Joe McGluwa was announced as the DA’s North-West candidate and Jane Sithole was chosen to represent Mpumalanga, completing the list for all nine provinces.

The candidates for the other provinces are:

Gauteng – Solly Msimanga

Eastern Cape – Nqaba Bhanga

Free State – Patricia Kopane

KwaZulu-Natal – Zwakele Mncwango

Northern Cape –  Andrew Louw

Limpopo – Jacques Smalle

Western Cape – Alan Winde

Maimane said his party was confident that only the best candidates were selected following a rigorous selection process.

He said the candidates would work tirelessly to spread the DA’s message of “building one South Africa for all”.

“The team is diverse and will travel to all corners of the country listening to concerns and identifying issues that affect the lives of South Africans,” said Maimane. 

He said McGluwa and Sithole will be instrumental as the party embarks on its One South Africa For All campaign, in which all Premier candidates have been tasked to be on the ground to listen to all matters from citizens in their respective provinces.

Sithole has been a member of the DA for almost 20 years, where she leads the party in Mpumalanga as a DA Member of the Provincial Legislature.

“Jane has marched through eMalahleni, Thabu Chweu, Govan Mbeki, Lekwa and Mbombela municipalities for the ring-fencing of funds and a payment plan to ensure that the R4-billion debt owed by these local governments to Eskom is cleared,” said Maimane.

Sithole said she was humbled to be selected by the DA to be a Premier candidate and acknowledged that she had a tough battle ahead.

She said the most important thing to address in Mpumalanga was the issue of people not being able to put food on the table.

“We will revive Pilgrim’s Rest, which was one of the favourite tourist destinations, because we know it will revive and create jobs immediately,” she said.

Maimane described McGluwa as a seasoned a politician, with a career spanning 30 years. McGluwa is the DA Leader in the North West. 

“He stopped former Premier Supra Mahumapelo from procuring his own jet and erecting a R6-million statue in honour of former President Jacob Zuma, that instead resulted in a monument, while pressuring for the Motion of No Confidence that led to Supra being fired,” Maimane explained.

McGluwa added that he was going to fight the scourge of corruption in the North West province by electing credible and sound candidates in key positions.

He said there was not a single municipality in North West that has received an unqualified audit and added that it was alarming that no action was taken against the corrupt politicians in that province.

Maimane declared that McGluwa and Sithole were the best chance that the DA had in bringing its calls for "freedom, fairness, opportunity, and diversity" to Mpumalanga and the North West.

“From here on, they will be the DA’s custodians for change in our mission to topple the corrupt ANC fiefdoms in the provinces. In provinces where patronage has served as the currency of former Premier [David] Mabuza and Mahumapelo’s plunder, Mpumalanga and the North West need competent and selfless leaders who will fight for one Mpumalanga and one North West for all,” said Maimane.

When asked to comment on the recent court decision which saw Athol Trollip’s bid to overturn his ousting as Nelson Mandela Bay mayor at the Eastern Cape High Court fail, Maimane said they respected the court’s decision adding that they will also study the decision closely.

“We want to focus on being an opposition party. It is however disappointing to see Andile Lungisa who has a criminal record in that municipality,” he said.

The DA will officially launch its 2019 election campaign and central team in Johannesburg’s historic Mary Fitzgerald Square on Saturday.