‘We share your fears’: Mmusi Maimane reveals BOSA’s policy priorities ahead of 2024 election

Mmusi Maimane. Photo: Gallo Images

• Build One South Africa leader Mmusi Maimane says South Africa needs a new kind of politics.
• According to Maimane, South Africans face a hopeless and bleak future.
• He addressed the Cape Town Press Club on Monday where he laid out his party’s vision ahead of the 2024 general election.

Build One South Africa (BOSA) leader Mmusi Maimane says South Africa needs a new kind of politics to turn the tide against the hopelessness and bleak prospects faced by the nation.

“Our history of colonial oppression, after which some notable democratic gains were marred by decades of mismanagement and looting by the once-great liberation movement, has left the country bloodied and broken,” Maimane said.

The former DA leader who launched BOSA in September addressed the Cape Town Press Club on Monday where he laid out his party’s vision ahead of the 2024 general election.

“We also recognise that the prospect of change is frightening to many people. What if a new government is even worse than the one we’ve known for so long? What if a new government only cares about the elite and ignores the millions of our people struggling every day in the townships and rural areas of South Africa?” he asked.

Maimane said BOSA understood South Africans’ depressed mood.

READ | ‘I don’t want to build a black DA’: Mmusi Maimane outlines goals of new ‘diverse’ party

“We see you. We understand you. We share your fears. That is why we need a new kind of politics to build a prosperous future, not only for the small elite who grew rich under apartheid, or the small elite who grew fat under the ANC, but for all South Africans, no matter who they are,” he said.

Part of BOSA’s plan is to crack down on corruption, create jobs and elect public representatives directly and not through the proportional representation system.

“We call it radical centrism: a programme that rejects the politics of us versus them, or left versus right, or rich versus poor, or tribe versus tribe. Instead, it stands firm on the middle ground. We adopt ideas not because they suit a particular ideology, but because they are proven to work.

“We partner with others not because we agree with everything they stand for, but because working together is how we build a new, successful country in which everyone has a stake,” Maimane said.