Today DA Team One South Africa members visited the informal mining communities in Kimberley. Along with my colleagues John Steenhuisen and Jacques Julius, we met miners and community leaders and heard their stories of the terrible living and working conditions in which they survive.

In Samaria Park and Kenilworth Cemetery, we saw how 2000 miners and their families share one tap, with no access to any ablution facilities, no electricity, no clinic, and no other basic service delivery of any sort. We heard how prevalent rape is in the community, and how indifferent the police are to helping.

These communities live in extreme poverty, in urgent need of a caring government that will deliver even the basics. And yet we heard how the failing ANC government has made mining licenses conditional on the community supporting the ANC, and how money promised to them by the Department of Mineral Resources meant for mining equipment and training, has never been delivered.

This is further proof of what we see across the country: opportunities and services are not open to all – they are reserved for the politically connected, or they are used as tools of control and abuse of poor people. This is not one South Africa for all. It is one country for the ANC and their friends, and another country for everyone else.

This shows how empty the failing ANC’s promises are, and how hollow President Ramaphosa’s words are on job creation. The failing ANC cannot create jobs; it will not create jobs.

The only way to change this is to register to vote for change that builds One South Africa for All on 26 and 27 January, and use the power of your vote to choose a DA government. Only the DA will deliver fair access to opportunities for all.

 

Issued by The DA