John Steenhuisen and Mpho Phalatse are making last minute attempts to convince delegates at the Democratic Alliance (DA) congress to choose them to lead the party for the next four years.
Over 2000 delegates are attending the congress and the DA wants to set the tone for what it hopes will be a watershed electoral year for it in 2024.
Steenhuisen has said the DA was working on gaining enough support at next year’s general elections to address the country’s challenges.
“We need a strong DA to build a better future for the country and that is exactly what the theme of this Congress is, the stronger the DA the better chance South Africa has a shot of getting out of this low growth, high debt, high unemployment, massive poverty trajectory and onto a new one. So, it is going to be a big test for the DA but I am up for the challenge. I look forward to taking the message as well as the proof point to people across the country to give them hope in an environment of load shedding, rising crime and spiraling cost of living.”
Meanwhile, Phalatse says her party has a chance to bring the ANC share of the vote to below 50% in the next election.
“And it’s a difficult one, we come from a painful history of racial segregation and here you are in a middle of South Africa saying, we want to be not just a multi racial political party but we want to be a non-racial party. We want to get to a place where we have addressed the injustices of the past, those who been economically excluded make sure that they pulled out of poverty so we can stop racial classification going forward.”
Watch the candidate speeches delivered by everyone running for DA leader.
Over 2000 delegates in Johannesburg will elect leadership and make resolutions to help chart a way forward for the 2024 Elections.
Watch it live now. https://t.co/wbKUnMCQ95#DAcongress2023 pic.twitter.com/lCcPIOWQTW
— Democratic Alliance (@Our_DA) April 1, 2023
Live proceedings at DA Congress:
