DA pledges to rescue KZN from ‘abusive ANC’

The DA says its premier candidate Chris Pappas will rescue KwaZulu-Natal voters from an “abusive relationship” with the ANC.

“A lot of traditional ANC voters are feeling out in the cold, they don’t see another political party,” DA KZN leader Francois Rodgers said.

“It’s almost like being in an abusive relationship where a husband beats a wife and she doesn’t believe there’s life outside her marriage. We’ve got to tell people they don’t have to live like that, that’s our message to traditional ANC voters apathetic about voting.”

Rodgers was speaking during the unveiling of Pappas billboards in Chatsworth on Monday for the 2024 national and provincial elections.

Pappas was announced as the party’s premier candidate in September. He did not attend the event, with the DA citing multiple meetings as the reason.

His campaign manager and eThekwini councillor Sakhile Mngadi said he had the experience to lead a province despite his relatively young age.

“Chris is young but experienced. He has been a ward councillor in the largest metro and he was a member of the legislature so he has the provincial experience. He’s the mayor of a municipality that’s doing well and so we think that’s enough experience to do the job. He has proven in every role he’s occupied that he’s able to be a top achiever,” Mngadi said.

Rodgers said Pappas, like other DA councillors, is receiving guidance through the party’s “governance unit” in its head office. The unit looks at how to run municipalities and provinces, largely taking lessons from its work in the Western Cape, Rodgers said.

“So we have a roadmap of how to govern, whether it’s a province or a municipality. Chris engages with the governance unit about uMngeni regularly and they advise him.”

“We’re already looking at putting together a shadow [executive] for the province and those individuals who have the possibility of going into [the executive] will, between now and the elections, receive training from our governance unit.”

“Chris Pappas is a palatable candidate who goes beyond just race. He really is speaking to the issues of this province and people are responding to that. He has shown that with the correct principles behind you, you can turn a challenging situation around.

“In office, we expect him to turn things around in this province and that’s something we’ve proven we can do where we govern. The people of KZN are starting to realise the DA can possibly be an agent of change.”

Rodgers also weighed in on provincial economic development MEC Siboniso Duma lifting the Rugby World Cup trophy instead of KwaZulu-Natal premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube during the Springboks’ victory parade on Saturday.

“When I saw the video I thought how disgusting and how disrespectful is that. The premier is Nomusa Dube-Ncube and for Duma to go and lift the cup is disrespectful to women and to the office of the premier. But we’ve come to understand how the ANC works. They talk about respecting women and gender equality, yet the chairperson of province undermines the premier.”

“Chris will prove to the ANC we can have respectful leaders in our province, unlike the chairperson of the ANC.”

He said the DA was encouraged by recent polls which pointed to a drop in ANC support.

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