Comrades,

Friends,

Fellow South Africans,

We are gathered here today, in our tens of thousands, to issue a clarion call to all the people of this great land.

We are gathered here today to say that the future of our country is in your hands.

This is a call to the young people who want to learn and to work and to build a life that is better than what they have today.

It is a call to the mothers and the fathers, who want decent homes and quality health care, who want to live in safe communities, and who want the best for their children.

This is a call to the workers, who want decent wages and a healthy workplace, who want to gain new skills and be given new opportunities.

It is a call to the labour tenants and farm workers, who want land they can call their own, who want water and seeds and implements.

This is a call to all South Africans: black and white, young and old, women and men.

It is a call to action.

It is a call to every South African to vote on Wednesday, the 8th of May, for a new era of growth, renewal and transformation.

This is a decisive moment in our history.

This a moment when we have to choose between the past and the future.

We can choose to return to a past of conflict and anger, of corruption and hunger.

Or we can choose to embark on a path of renewal and go forward to a future of peace and stability, jobs and progress.

As the people of South Africa, let us declare with one clear and loud voice that we choose to go forward.

We choose hope over despair.

We choose renewal over stagnation.

We choose growth over decline.

This is the message that our people gave us as we criss-crossed the country – from Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha in the south to Musina and Thohoyandou in the north, from Ngwavuma and KwaMashu and  Mthatha in the east to Mahikeng and Upington and Springbok and Vredendaal  in the west.

We have met with workers in factories, on farms and in mines.

We have met with artisans, shop assistants, teachers, nurses, students, artists and pensioners. We have met business people, professionals, farmers, religious leaders and traditional leaders.

We have met people whose lives have been transformed over the last 25 years of democracy.

But we have also met people without work, without proper shelter, without a high school education, without running water or decent sanitation.

We have met people with disability, who have told us about the discrimination they face, about their struggles to access education and the particular difficulties they have finding a job.

We have met young and old, women and men, African, coloured, Indian and white.

We have heard them speak with many voices of their aspirations, their concerns and their frustrations.

And we have heard them speak with one voice about the country they love and the united and fair nation they want to live in.

They have reminded us of the achievements of 25 years – of the houses built, the jobs created, the education provided and the horizons broadened.

But they have also been critical of our shortcomings.

They have told us where service delivery has failed, where infrastructure has not been maintained, where people with authority and responsibility have stolen money.

They are frustrated at the slow rate of economic growth and the grinding effects of poverty and unemployment.

We have heard of the difficulties many of them continue to face in the midst of a tough economic environment, of the bills that need to be paid, of the rising cost of food, fuel and transport.

They have raised these issues with us – directly and bluntly – because they know that the ANC is the only organisation that can address their concerns.

 

Full Speech Attached