Africa 

The Democratic Alliance wraps up campaigning by urging South African voters to ditch the ANC

The leader of South Africa’s main opposition party urged voters Saturday to give “change a chance” in next week’s general election after 25 years of ANC rule.

“Let us be brave and give change a chance,” Mmusi Maimane told more than 10,000 Democratic Alliance supporters at Dobsonville stadium in Soweto.

South Africans go to the polls on Wednesday in one of the most competitive national elections since the first multi-racial vote in 1994.

Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress, which led the struggle to end apartheid, has won every election since then.

But addressing his final and biggest rally before the vote, Maimane said it was time for change as the country battles corruption, poverty and high unemployment.

“Today the choice is between fear and bravery. If South Africans were not brave, I bet you apartheid would still be in place.

“We are brave and we are going to show courage and hope for change in this election”.

He condemned the ANC for going from from “leaders in the struggle for freedom” to those who now “stand directly in the way of freedom”.

“They were once our liberators but today we need to be liberated from them,” Maimane told the cheering crowd in his home township.

AFP

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