DA challenges ANC to public debate
DA national spokesperson, Phumzile Van Damme, has challenged ANC spokesperson, to a debate on the jobs crisis in South Africa, and the current state of the economy.
Currently, South Africa’s official unemployment rate is at 25.5%, with most analysts noting that the real figure is much higher.
The country’s credit rating is on the verge of being downgraded to junk, while the economy is forecast to grow at less than 2% in 2016.
The DA on Thursday (7 January) unveiled a billboard in the centre of Johannesburg ‘that will serve as a reminder to us of how many of our fellow citizens lose hope every day by joining the ranks of the unemployed’.
The billboard contains a live ticker that will start on 1,842,852 and count up by 1 new jobless person every 112 seconds, to show the total of 774 people that become jobless in every 24 hour cycle under the leadership of Zuma’s ANC government.
The billboard drew criticism from the ANC, calling it racist.
Spokesperson Zizi Kodwa said the DA had failed to appreciate the damage caused by a minority government during apartheid. He said the opposition party had tried various gimmicks before to discredit the ANC.
“Zizi Kodwa’s remarks following the launch of our jobs campaign and billboard yesterday are very telling of a party that has no plans to create jobs and grow the economy.
“Instead of intellectually engaging with the content of our billboard and jobs campaign, Mr Kodwa chose to unwarrantedly pull the race card,” Van Damme said.
“There is nothing racist about the billboard,” the DA said.
Van Damme said that the billboard contains uncomfortable truths for the ANC, and because it has no plans or hope to offer the unemployed and those that have given up looking for work under the ANC government, it chose cry wolf and claim racism.
“Racism should never be used for cheap political point scoring. This is an insult to the millions of South Africans that experience racism on a daily basis,” Van Damme said.
Racism, the DA representative said, needs to be treated with the seriousness it deserves and not as a convenient refuge for politicians that see it as an opportunity to whip up a frenzy, further divide South Africa, and avoid accountability.
To prove that the ANC has no plans to arrest the decline in employment, and to allow South Africans the opportunity to compare the DA’s plan to solve unemployment, Van Damme challenged Kodwa to a public debate.
“The people of South Africa are not fooled by the ANC’s antics to avoid talking about the real issues of the day.
“Mr Kodwa must put his money where his mouth is and accept our challenge to debate this subject,” Van Damme said.
More on the ANC and DA
‘DA a party full of racists’: Nzimande
Most racists come from the DA: ANC
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