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With just under 9 weeks until the sixth General Elections, the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) campaign machinery is in full operation. Every day, the Leader, Mmusi Maimane, our Premier Candidates, Team One South Africa and Activists are hard at work, ensuring that our Manifesto for Change reaches every household across the country.

While the polling numbers are encouraging and indicate that the people of South Africa support the DA’s message of bringing real Change that Builds One South Africa for All, we realise that the hard work of campaigning cannot stop until the final ballot is cast on 8 May.

Our work of reaching every home, means that we must use all available platforms – door-to-door, townhall meetings, social media, SMS’es, radio and TV adverts.

Today, as the DA, we launch our first television advert of the 2019 election campaign. This advert will be supported by a series of radio and TV adverts, as well as billboards, which speak to our core election offers and commitments.

This particular advert, which gives life to the vision and mission of a united South Africa, tells the story of a country that has great potential and its greatest strength lies in the diversity of its people. The Democratic Alliance is the only political party that continues to champion Nelson Mandela’s vision of a united, reconciled, prosperous and non-racial South Africa for all.

While others try to divide, we are working to unite and build. As the DA, we will never abandon the need to build a country that belongs to those who live in it. As difficult as this task might be, and the healing that we are still going through, we believe that South Africans want to Build One South Africa for All.

We will remind all South Africans irrespective of their race, anchored by the unifying call of our national anthem, that we live in a great country with huge potential - and that united in our diversity - we shall stand and overcome our challenges.

Additionally, to realise our true potential we need to work together because we are better and stronger when we are together than when we are apart.

We further recognize that our country has strayed from the path laid out by forbearers like Tata Nelson Mandela because some political parties have a mission to divide South Africans along racial lines. The DA therefore call on all South Africans to stand up against the politics of division, regardless of who peddles up it, and stand together in order to build One South Africa for All.

This advert will be aired across a range of SABC channels and will serve as a demonstration of the DA’s vision of Building One South Africa for All. This is but one of the full suite of adverts which the DA has developed for various platforms in different languages to reach South Africans from all walks of life.

In the past we have been taken to court by the ANC, and we have been gagged by a public broadcaster that was doing the bidding of the governing party, but we trust that this period of dirty and undemocratic tricks is behind us. For free and fair elections to take place, there must be free and fair expression by political parties. We will never engage in underhanded tactics nor will we tolerate these machinations when they happen to us. We expect all parties, especially the governing to party, to play by the rules.

On that note, we condemn any attacks on the Fourth Estate. Politicians and journalists often disagree but there are proper channels, which should be used. The act of exposing someone, especially a woman to vulnerability and crude attacks is unacceptable, and should be condemned by all South Africans who believe in human dignity.

Indeed, there were nine wasted years, with little changing over the last year because President Cyril Ramaphosa is the driver of the same broken ANC bus. So as a country, we cannot afford another five wasted years. Based on tested policies and good governance, which 15 million South Africans under DA-led governments already experience, we can bring much needed change to South Africa.

While our manifesto has solutions for all sectors of society, we are campaigning to five core issues, which South Africans want addressed immediately:

• Stopping corruption
• Make our police service honest, professional and effective in fighting crime
• Fair access to jobs, which puts a job in every home
• Secure borders
• Speed up basic service delivery
• Our vision for South Africa as unpacked in our manifesto, which has been well received by the people of South Africa. From Lusikisiki, to Potchefstroom; from Langa to Soweto; from Chatsworth to Summerstrand; from Galeshewe to Mahikeng – it does not matter where we go in this beautiful country, our message of change resonates with the aspirations of Black, White, Indian and Coloured South Africans.

The past weekend saw the Western Cape launch its Plan of Action, and KwaZulu Natal unveil its provincial manifesto. This coming weekend, both Gauteng and Free State will have their provincial launches. By the end of the month, we would have seen mass rallies in all provinces.

We are confident that we will reach our targets of:

• Retaining Western Cape
• Bringing the ANC below 50% Percent in Gauteng
• Bringing the ANC below 50% Percent in the Northern Cape

Yesterday’s ‘A Re Sebetseng’ campaign saw DA Mayors in Johannesburg, Midvaal and Tshwane come together to clean the streets of Gauteng, showing that it is only the DA that can get Gauteng working. Gauteng is important to South Africa, it has to work, because when Gauteng works, South Africa works.

What’s also worth noting are the results which came out from yesterday’s Nelson Mandela Bay Ward 2 by-election, where we achieved 93,36% of the vote; this is up from 90,18% in 2016. We thank the people of NMB for once again placing their trust in the DA. This result goes further to show that our message for change is one which South Africans believe in. Furthermore, we do not take it for granted when we are elected to lead – there’s no greater responsibility and privilege than that of being given a mandate to change people’s lives.

We are hard at work, tirelessly working to ensure that our people know that real Change will Build One South Africa for All.

South Africans have two choices in this election: More of the same or Change led by the Democratic Alliance.

Issued by The DA