INTRODUCTION
South Africa’s deep crisis is felt every day by all South Africans. At a
most basic level, there are more cases of food insecurity and hunger
today than there were in 1994, at the dawn of freedom. There are
entire communities without clean drinking water, who must draw it
from dams which are also polluted.
Nothing calls for urgent action more than having neither food nor
water, yet there are millions of South Africans without these basic
needs. The reasons are many but the most important is poor,
unethical and uncaring leadership . Although our country does not
have unlimited resources, there have been enough over the years to
ensure that this abuse of people’s basic rights is a thing of the past.
We live in what is called a kakistocracy, defined as “a government
by the least suitable and capable citizens of a state”. We have a
leadership that cares more about its privileged position and power
than it does about people, and appoints unsuitable people to critical
posts purely for its own preservation.
The only way out of a crisis of leadership is an election to replace the
unsuitable, incapable and uncaring leaders with new, ethical and
capable leaders. The next national and provincial elections take place
in a few months’ time, and that is why RISE Mzansi has from the
beginning said 2024 Is Our 1994 .
That is the decisive step most of the South African people took
in 1994. They unseated the apartheid government and ushered
in a new leadership to guide society in its efforts to build a caring
and prosperous democratic state whose citizens could enjoy all
fundamental human rights.
Those rights are being eroded to the point where many citizens
only exist in law but not in practice or reality. This is a new and
more urgent struggle for survival. While apartheid repression was a
crime, starving people and depriving them of water is also a crime.
The People’s Manifesto Booklet - 20 January 2024
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FOR THE PEOPLE
BY THE PEOPLE