As the race for power in the 2024 elections gears up, Rise Mzansi leader Songezo Zibi vows that a historical moment will be decided by the voters next year during the elections.
“We are here because 2024 is our 1994, a historic moment where we will choose to take our destiny into our hands and restore hope to our land. This is why we must rise,” he said.
Zibi, who is a former editor of the Financial Mail and former editor of Business Day, was addressing delegates at the party’s first policy conference at Constitutional Hill in Johannesburg on Friday.
Delegates from civil society organisations, business, and academia were gathered at the party’s conference.
He said 2024 will be a year where South Africans claim their political freedom and have new political leaders that will answer the challenges facing the country.
“We are here to craft new answers to that question. We are here because Rise Mzansi’s volunteers and supporters have decided that it is impossible to get better results while keeping the same old, tired politicians and their political parties in place.
“They have no energy, no ideas, and no credibility. We need new leaders, and we need new politics because we need new answers,” he said.
He added that bad governance by bad politicians and corrupt political parties was standing in the way of prosperity and economic justice.
During his address, he said that the policy discussions would speak to the life-changing themes between the government and the people.
He said that the themes were an outcome of the deep listening and reflection they have done with ordinary people from all walks of life across the length and breadth of the country.
“South Africans want the quality of life of their families to improve dramatically. They want to live long, healthy, and safe lives where jobs, income, and building wealth are possible because there are basic services and opportunities to prosper,” he said.
Zibi said that South Africans needed a political system that grows democracy, not undermines it, and stated that Rise Mzansi is there for them.
In his speech, he highlighted the issue of land as another pandemic because citizens are suffering at the hands of political parties who claim to work for them. He added that land was expensive for people to use for either business or residence.
“We all know our economy does not work for everyone, but we now have even bigger problems than before. We cannot build an economy on broken infrastructure, load shedding, and a failing railway system. We cannot build an economy on dams and reservoirs that have no water in them,” he said.
Furthermore, he said the time for bad governance was over and Rise was here to lead the people.
kamogelo.moichela@inl.co.za
IOL