The leader of the newly formed political party, Rise Mzansi, Songezo Zibi, has lambasted the DA’s approach to lure political parties with its so-called ‘Moonshot Pact’.
This emerged during the launch of a new political party called Rise Mzansi, at Constitution Hill in Braamfontein.
Over the weekend DA leader John Steenhuisen claimed 15 parties have endorsed his Moon Pact which entails entering into a pre-election agreement with the hope of parties coming together to unseat the ANC in the 2024 general elections.
Steenhuisen said newly-formed parties and movements who have not yet contested elections are more than welcome to join the pact.
However, Zibi said the DA should have discussed the pact privately with interested political parties and Steenhuisen had not presented the idea to him.
“I would love to respond to John specifically but I can’t because he hasn’t told me. But there are few principles, South Africa has been carried by civil society or on civil society’s back in the last 20 years of complete dis-function and corruption.
“If you want to build something you cannot build something on top of that for deal-making among political parties and you say you don’t want the EFF…is that really an idea that is going to bring us together?
“If you want to find if people (other parties) agree to an idea or not phone them, ask them for a meeting now I have to tell them via you (media) guys,” he said.
Zibi, a former editor, spoke at great length on what his party represents, who are the people it stands for and what it brings to the table and called for electoral, judicial and government reform by eliminating old systems that have negatively affected the state of the country.
“I would like us to reflect on what is really missing. South Africa in this state not for lack of political parties there is something else which is missing. Our society is broken. It is not loadshedding that demoralises us, it is the sense that we lost the ability to deal with it.
“It is not the presence of crime that is… depressing, it is the sense that those who are tasked to fight crime are themselves criminals,” he said, adding that his goal is to build a political system based on principles of justice, freedom, equality, solidarity and integrity,” he said.
Zibi believes these values will revive what he calls a South African dream saying in November 2022, where hundreds of patriotic South Africans met to discuss the country they wanted to build and how to build it.
“What followed was a powerful pledge to be loyal to the South African Constitution, work in our communities and volunteer to find solutions to make our communities safe and prosperous,
work together to build an inclusive movement, driven by the people, to contest for political power in Election 2024 and develop ethical, accountable leaders capable of leading our country and communities. This is what ‘the people shall govern’ means.”
Zibi said there were four priorities for South Africa and the first is political reform to return democracy to the people and to build a capable state.
“That political reform programme must include electoral reform, government and judicial reform. These will underpin efforts to clean up, capacitate and professionalise the civil service”.
Zibi is also the co-founder of civil organization Rivonia Circle and an author of two books: Raising the Bar: Hope and Renewal in South Africa (2015) and Manifesto – A New Vision for South Africa (2022).
The party will launch its manifesto in September and it plans to contest the 2024 general elections with Zibi as its presidential candidate.
