Nqaba Bhanga announced as DA candidate for premier

The DA in the Eastern Cape will focus on reopening teaching colleges and establishing agricultural colleges.

This is if DA provincial leader Nqaba Bhanga is successful in clinching the province come the 2019 general elections.

Bhanga was announced as the party's candidate for premier at the Athenaeum in Port Elizabeth on Wednesday.

Making the announcement, DA national leader Mmusi Maimane said Bhanga’s nomination was an easy decision.

“Nqaba, along with an experienced team, will spend the next months taking the DA’s message of a prosperous, inclusive South Africa built on a foundation of Freedom, Fairness, Opportunity and Diversity, to all four corners of this province,” Maimane said.

Bhanga said his focus would be reviving businesses in the province.

“I don't believe in the activist business model that is practiced in the Eastern Cape. The type of businesses we create is of people who want to sell work,” Bhanga said.

Bhanga said he had introduced an incubator system in the municipality’s human settlement department to end this.

Maimane said Bhanga would embark on a tour across the province as part of his campaign trail.

“He will speak to thousands of people young and old, black and white, in cities, towns and rural areas, about what they want from a government, and what the DA can offer them,” Maimane.

Maimane added he had full confidence in Bhanga.

“I have full confidence in Nqaba Bhanga to not only deliver this message of change to the people of this great province, but also to run the Eastern Cape as a Premier who cares, who understands the challenges our people face here and who can lead a dynamic DA team that will bring total change here,” Maimane said.