My fellow South Africans,

Thank you for welcoming me to your community, and thank you for welcoming me to Nelson Mandela Bay. I love coming back to this city because I can feel the change that is coming here.

There is an energy in this place that you cannot ignore. People can sense that they’re about to make history. People know that the time has come for this city to break free from a government that has been holding it back for decades, and set its sights on a new future.

People know that the ANC’s losing streak will continue – both at the ballot box and in our courts. Just this morning we received news that they were not granted leave to appeal in the Spy Tapes case. This means that Jacob Zuma is one day closer to his day in court, and that he and his dishonest government will soon face the full might of the law. It shows that, while the ANC keeps on losing, the DA keeps on winning.

You may have noticed that I have been to Nelson Mandela Bay many times in recent weeks. That’s because this place is very important to the DA. We have gained more ground here on the ANC than in any other part of the country. In fact, the polls show that we are neck-and-neck here.

The momentum is on our side and we are on track to kick this weak and corrupt ANC government out and install a DA government here that will help Nelson Mandela Bay reach its true potential.

But here’s the thing about momentum: you must never take your foot off the pedal. Once you have the momentum, you keep on going until you have achieved your goal.

Our momentum here in Nelson Mandela Bay has been building for many years now. In the last municipal election back in 2011, the DA won 40% of the vote compared to the ANC’s 52%. Our success included wards such as this one we’re standing in today.

Five years on we have erased the ANC’s lead completely. Some polls even have the DA slightly ahead here. That is what I mean when I say we have the momentum in Nelson Mandela Bay. And we now have just over 5 weeks left to ensure that we make this count.

Because, even though we may have won wards such as this one back in 2011, the only way to bring the DA difference to your community is to govern the entire metro. To look after the people’s money, to make sure budgets are spent where they should be and to make sure none of this money ends up in the pockets of corrupt politicians and their cronies.

Exactly ten years ago, leaders from the DA were having this exact same conversation with communities across Cape Town. Remember, back then Cape Town was also suffering under a corrupt ANC government. The DA leaders were telling these communities that Cape Town was ready for a DA government. That it was a close race, but that they had a real chance to win the city.

And that’s exactly what they did. The DA won that municipal election by a tiny margin, but it immediately started to undo the ANC’s damage and get the city back on its feet. Five years later, at the 2011 election, the people of Cape Town voted strongly in favour of a DA government. They made it clear that they will never go back to life under an ANC government.

Today, under the leadership of Mayor Patricia De Lille, Cape Town outperforms every other metro in South Africa across every measure. It has, by far, the lowest unemployment in the country. It delivers the highest access to basic services. It has the least waste and corruption. It transfers the most property title deeds to residents.

It is still not perfect, and Mayor De Lille is working hard to improve the lives of each and every resident in the city. But it is head and shoulders above every single other city in South Africa. That’s what I call the DA difference, and that’s what we will bring to Nelson Mandela Bay.

I’d like to tell you today how Mayor De Lille manages the best-run city in the country. It has a lot to do with her work ethic, and it has a lot to do with the way she stays in touch with all the communities of Cape Town.

But mostly it is because she cannot stand people who steal and people who waste money. Her administration has a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to corruption. Government employees aren’t allowed to do business with the City, tender processes are fair and transparent and budgets are spent where they are needed most.

And this makes all the difference. If you want to see how well or how poorly your local government looks after your money, you need to look at the Auditor General’s report. There’s a section on what they call wasteful, fruitless and unauthorised expenditure. Last year, that figure here in Nelson Mandela Bay was R457 million. In Cape Town it was zero.

You see, the ANC knows that it can’t speak about waste and corruption with a straight face. It knows that every single ANC-run local government is riddled with corruption, and so it avoids the topic in its campaigns. They even tried to parachute a “corruption buster” in Danny Jordaan to this metro to try and clean up its image.

But Danny Jordaan isn’t fooling anyone. He is, after all, the man in the middle of a $10m FIFA bribe scandal. He is also the man who has been trying very hard to push through the appointment of a convicted criminal as this city’s head of Safety and Security – something the Hawks have now decided to investigate. If Danny Jordaan is the best the ANC could find to clean up corruption, then they are in more trouble than we thought.

But you don’t have to worry too much about Danny Jordaan. Because the next Mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay is standing right here next to me, and he is all the corruption buster this city needs. Even as the opposition here in this Metro, Athol Trollip has made huge progress in the fight against waste and corruption. Now just imagine what he will be able to do as your mayor.

You also need to send a strong message that Nelson Mandela Bay doesn’t want the violence and chaos that we have seen in Tshwane in recent days. Because this is what happens when a party turns its back on the people and thinks only of its own interests. Then it thinks it can parachute candidates in to top positions at the expense of the people.

Tshwane has shown us that the ANC is at war with itself, and this war is threatening communities that want nothing to do with it. The ANC’s failure to listen to the people it serves will be the party’s downfall. We have already seen signs of the same chaos around their candidate list here in Nelson Mandela Bay, when a councillor’s house was petrol-bombed and another candidate fell victim to a gun attack.

As voters, you need to put your foot down and say: This is not what we want in our city. We want a government that listens, a government that delivers and a government that keeps its promises. And that is what you will get in the DA under Athol Trollip.

Also up here behind me are all the DA’s candidates for the Northern Areas for these local government elections. Remember them, because these are the people who will bring the DA difference to your community.

But your choices here on 3 August will not only be between the big parties. You will also be presented with the choice of an independent candidate. You will be told that this candidate will somehow represent you and look after your interests. But make no mistake, a vote for an independent candidate, just like a vote for a smaller party, is a wasted vote. It will do nothing for your community, and it will only dilute a possible DA majority.

A vote for an independent candidate will only serve to strengthen the ANC’s grip on this city. It will undo years of progress made by the DA, and it will shift the momentum back in the favour of the party that has abandoned you.

If I can leave you with one thought today, it is this: Don’t give up the hard victories that you and the DA have already won here in this city. You have been claiming your city back, inch by inch, from a corrupt government that has turned its back on you. Now is not the time to give up any of these gains.

The only way for the DA to deliver on its promise to you – of building a free and fair city, with opportunities for everyone who lives here – is by taking over the government of this metro. And to do that, we’re going to need each and every one of you to get behind the DA in these elections.

Then give us five years to show what we can do. Judge us again after one term. If you don’t think we’ve made enough progress by then, you must use your vote to fire us too. But first give us a chance to prove that we can turn Nelson Mandela Bay around, like we did for Cape Town.

I spoke earlier about momentum. I said winning wards like these gives us the momentum to win entire metros like these. But the momentum doesn’t end there. On the back of victories in metros like Nelson Mandela Bay, Tshwane and Johannesburg, we will go on to secure victory for a DA national government. And that’s when we will put into action our plan to bring Freedom, Fairness and Opportunity to all the people of South Africa.