Pray for Cyril Ramaphosa, vote for Mmusi Maimane, says Helen Zille

Western Cape premier Helen Zille flew into Port Elizabeth on Sunday to join her DA counterpart, provincial leader Nqaba Bhanga, to campaign for the last time before Wednesday's national elections.

The pair, flanked by other senior DA provincial leaders, entered the Chatty Community Centre hall singing and dancing to Koekie-Loekie as the crowds cheered and chanted.

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In his address to the crowd of about 900 people, Bhanga highlighted the need for job creation throughout the province while touching on gangsterism and corruption within the Bay municipality.

Bhanga referred to the murder of Alvineesha Brookes, 12, who was killed walking in Buys Street when caught in the crossfire of gunshots between two rival gangs.

Bhanga said the country needed a professional and honest police force.

Bhanga also touched on the recent spate of hit murders in the Bay, saying they were linked to the current coalition "giving a R21m tender [for drain cleaning] to friends and criminals".

Over nine weeks between January and March, at least 22 people were killed in targeted fashion in one of the bloodiest bursts of violence in the Bay's townships.

Police believe the earlier killings were sparked by a clash between small business owners over the R21m municipal drain-cleaning deal.

"What happened when they gave their friends R21m, they killed each other, more than 20 people here in this city. They were killed because of corruption."

Referring to the IPTS buses, Bhanga said the buses had been standing idle since 2010, but when the DA took over, they were running within a year.

"The buses work. We employed people here from the northern areas," he said.

Zille said that while the DA was governing the Bay, via a coalition government, for two years, they managed to stop corrupt tenders and get rid of 9,000 pit toilets.

"Our job is to bring all the blue people together in South Africa. We are building a new majority to take power away from these corrupt crooks and looters," she said.

"We must pray for everyone, but you don't have to vote for everyone.

"Pray for Cyril [Ramaphosa] but vote for Mmusi [Maimane]. This is what we must do.

"We need you to put us into power so that we can look after the [tax] money and spend it on the right things."

Zille said that what the DA-led coalition accomplished in Nelson Mandela Bay before being ousted in August 2018 was amazing.

"It is amazing what they [the DA] achieved in just two years before the jackals came," Zille said.

"In that small time the DA government took away 60% of all the bucket toilets.

"That is over 9,000 toilets they fixed because they were not stealing the money.

"If you don't steal the money, you can deliver services," she said.