Contribute to change

[Drake2007]

Don't just vote for the DA, volunteer and recruit.

http://contributetochange.org.za/

Though I'm not so sure about winning the lunch.

 

[R13...]

why should i vote for the DA?

 

[Serqet]

Yea why?

 

[Serqet]

Oh wait let me guess because Helen Zille won an award for being a Mayor and Cape Town looks so pretty now. I don't think that's a good enough reason.

 

[Drake2007]

Oh wait let me guess because Helen Zille won an award for being a Mayor

Yes she did.
· Within a year of taking over the City, the DA-led Cape Town administration cut debt by nearly R1bn, and wrote off R1.5 billion in debt accrued prior to September 2003. The debt write-off has provided the city’s poor with a much needed financial respite.
· Under the ANC, housing was produced at a rate of 3000 houses/year from 2001 to 2006. The DA-led City Administration has more than doubled the rate of housing delivery to over 7000 units/year.
· Under the DA-led administration, capital spending on services and infrastructure (waste services, roads, and electricity reticulation) has tripled to R3.1bn for 2008/09. By comparison, the ANC government spent R1b/year on services and infrastructure between 2001 and 2006.
· The City has created 7 700 jobs through its expanded works programme in the first six months of 2008/09, and therefore is looking to exceed last year’s annual total of 12 500 jobs.
· In 2007, the City of Cape Town was awarded the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism’s annual Cleanest Metro award.
· Helen Zille was awarded World Mayor 2008.

And that's not the reason for voting for the DA.

"The Democratic Alliance believes in the open, opportunity society for all where everybody has the opportunities and the space to shape their own lives, improve their skills and follow their dreams. The government’s key role is to expand and promote equal opportunities for all. People are not held back by arbitrary criteria such as gender, religion, or colour or the
prejudice of those in power"

I could paste the DA's manifesto here would be reinventing the wheel when you can
have a read ->
http://www.da.org.za/about.htm?acti...86&PHPSESSID=296f2dce92c4badceea59b70e70bec7e

 

[R13...]

"The Democratic Alliance believes in the open, opportunity society for all where everybody has the opportunities and the space to shape their own lives, improve their skills and follow their dreams. The government’s key role is to expand and promote equal opportunities for all. People are not held back by arbitrary criteria such as gender, religion, or colour or the
prejudice of those in power"

COPE, ID, and possibly the ANC offer same...
so the Q remains.

 

[kilps]

COPE, ID, and possibly the ANC offer same...
so the Q remains.

At least in the case of the ANC this is certainly not the case - ever heard of the ANC's cadre deployment policy? Basically it is official party policy to 'deploy' party cadres to positions of influence in society.

This is one of the biggest issues the DA keeps going on about with the ANC (probably why people say they moan too much...) - it is often incredibly difficult to get a job / anything else from/in government without knowing someone.

Of course most opposition parties would tell you the same line (the DA is just making a bigger issue of it, which can be a good thing) - so why not go read their (and other party's) policies on their website instead of asking people here why you should vote for them? You're more likely to get an unbais review of policy that way...

 

[Drake2007]

COPE, ID, and possibly the ANC offer same...
so the Q remains.

I disagree, the ANC and COPE have a crony society where the prospects of each individual are determined by his links and access to the small leadership network in the ruling party.

The leadership promotes and protects the network (inside and outside the party) and the network, in return, protects and promotes the leadership.

It is a closed circle based on reinforcing mutual interests. Mutual enrichment soon becomes
the primary focus. This inevitably results in corruption and power abuse.

Merit and competence are entirely incidental in this kind of system. The people with prospects are those loyalists who can be relied upon to extend and entrench the network’s control over all levers of power both inside the party, and throughout society, and follow its instructions.

 

[R13...]

my problem with the DA's promises is that
they are likely to come to nought seeing as they don't see
themselves running anything other than CT (at best) & WC (at a stretch).
their best candidate is on their province list (because they don't expect to do better than that) instead of national - who is their prez candidate?

 

[grayston]

COPE, ID, and possibly the ANC offer same...
so the Q remains.

Because our democracy is not yet mature enough for us to vote people in based on their promises.

The DA has delivered in the (very few) places where it has control. That's a start.

 

[Drake2007]

my problem with the DA's promises is that
they are likely to come to nought seeing as they don't see
themselves running anything other than CT (at best) & WC (at a stretch).
their best candidate is on their province list (because they don't expect to do better than that) instead of national - who is their prez candidate?

Actually they see themselves as winning the elections and as for who is the president,

"The existing system by which the president, premiers and mayors are elected (by other public representatives) takes power away from voters. The DA will give voters, not the party, the final say over who their leaders should be."

 

[R13...]

Because our democracy is not yet mature enough for us to vote people in based on their promises.

The DA has delivered in the (very few) places where it has control. That's a start.

on a larger scale what is to prevent
the DA turning into an extenstion of the ANC in terms
of Association of Nepotists & Cronies? after all the people they send to parly are drawn from SA society where most of the ills lie.

 

[Drake2007]

on a larger scale what is to prevent
the DA turning into an extenstion of the ANC in terms
of Association of Nepotists & Cronies? after all the people they send to parly are drawn from SA society where most of the ills lie.

The DA themselves
"The DA will ensure that no person who has been convicted on any charge of corruption, fraud, theft or violent crime will be permitted to hold public office."

 

[Pilgrim]

on a larger scale what is to prevent
the DA turning into an extenstion of the ANC in terms
of Association of Nepotists & Cronies? after all the people they send to parly are drawn from SA society where most of the ills lie.

The DA promotes the Rule of Law. The ANC does everything it their power to divert the Law from touching one of their own.

In the DA, if someone is found to be corrupt, they are thrown out. Also, the DA does not enter into corrupt deals with other parties.

Show me a example of where a DA employee was found guilty of corruption (should be easy) and then show me an article that shows that the DA tried to protect that employee (should be hard/impossible)

 

[grayston]

on a larger scale what is to prevent
the DA turning into an extenstion of the ANC in terms
of Association of Nepotists & Cronies? after all the people they send to parly are drawn from SA society where most of the ills lie.

The voters can prevent it. All they need to do is stop voting DA if the DA turns into a bunch of corrupt homunculuses trying to pass themselves off as parlimentarians.

Theoretically, that's what should be happening now with the ANC. If you don't perform, then no matter how flowery your promises are, you should be out the door.

 

[R13...]

The voters can prevent it. All they need to do is stop voting DA if the DA turns into a bunch of corrupt homunculuses trying to pass themselves off as parlimentarians.

Theoretically, that's what should be happening now with the ANC. If you don't perform, then no matter how flowery your promises are, you should be out the door.

the (ANC) voters see nothing wrong with what the ANC is doing & believe Zuma is actually better than Mbeki. they look at Zuma & hear him speak & say there's a guy we can relate to. he speaks to them in a language they can understand they can dance mshini wam' with him...
he speaks to their issues and they believe him. mind you Zuma goes to the masses and speaks poverty, jobs, shelter, electricity, running water NOT corruption. he brings up corruption, crime when in Sandton because he know what his voters' immediate needs are.

that's why they keep voting the ANC!

 

[kilps]

my problem with the DA's promises is that
they are likely to come to nought seeing as they don't see
themselves running anything other than CT (at best) & WC (at a stretch).
their best candidate is on their province list (because they don't expect to do better than that) instead of national - who is their prez candidate?

It is an interesting strategy - but I think that they have explained it rather well.

They would rather show that they can govern well by putting their best people in places they will be governing instead of simply being the opposition. They are realistic enough to know that they won't win national elections this year - and so are focusing on taking some provinces where they are strong to prove to the rest of the country that when they win things get better.

It has certainly worked in Cape Town - the DA government has achieved a lot - I don't completely agree with a few of their policies (alcohol licensing hours) and think there are definite areas of improvement (drivers licence testing stations) - but on the whole they seem on track, and everyone who claims otherwise has yet to put to me a convincing argument.

 

[grayston]

the (ANC) voters see nothing wrong with what the ANC is doing & believe Zuma is actually better than Mbeki. they look at Zuma & hear him speak & say there's a guy we can relate to. he speaks to them in a language they can understand they can dance mshini wam' with him...
he speaks to their issues and they believe him. mind you Zuma goes to the masses and speaks poverty, jobs, shelter, electricity, running water NOT corruption. he brings up corruption, crime when in Sandton because he know what his voters' immediate needs are.

that's why they keep voting the ANC!

Yeah, I know that, but I don't see what that has to do with your concern that voting DA will make the DA corrupt.

 

[R13...]

Yeah, I know that, but I don't see what that has to do with your concern that voting DA will make the DA corrupt.

you misunderstand me...
i am asking a question & hypothising based on the current moral stds of the country.

 

[Aeron]

Teh problemz is the fact that in SA the lower class is the voting class. The lower class is impoverished, uneducated, jobless and riddled with AIDS. With all due respect, they have not been educated to the point where they can use 15 years of history and experience to decide on the future. They see a guy speaking whom they can "relate to" and suddenly forget about mommy and daddy and twenty seven brothers and thirty three sisters all living under half a roof, all dying from AIDS. And they vote with the mental image of that guy delivering his speech, not the image of hell their daily lives are.