Darren Maule's message to the ruling party

 Dear Ruling Party – whoever you may be.

When you take over (or continue with) power in this country, I need to ask a favour of you.

The country that you are taking over (or possibly continuing to run), is now broken. You are inheriting a country that is comprehensively broken from top to bottom.

So, when you go to work on 9 May, I ask you to relook at the Minister deployment in our beautiful country and to put the best people possible into positions that this country desperately needs.

The problem is that you aren’t inheriting a country that is working. You can’t say “Oh well, thank you for influencing me into this position, I am going to reward you with this and that position." Not anymore.

No, no! We are in a State of emergency, you literally have to bring in the Fire Department, the Police Department, even the Secret Service into every single department. The house is already on fire. There is no time for a caucus on spending and management of the fire department. 

Just call anyone who has put out a fire and ask them to do what they do best.

You have got to find the absolute best of the best, and then find the person that taught them to be that good and let them consult.

The country you’re inheriting is not starting from zero, it’s worse than that, we are starting on a deficit - morally, economically, politically - of less than zero.

We have to claw our way back up to a zero status and then work our way up to a positive one.

For this to happen we need to search high and low for the people that are qualified and able to do these jobs. Oh, and there is nothing wrong with bringing in people who did the jobs previously. People that were experts in forestry and fisheries, and sciences and education. People that were experts in infrastructure. People that were experts in governance. 

There is nothing wrong with bringing in retired experts and coupling them up with really young and energetic individuals, and getting the job done with both vigour and value.

The BEST person for the job! No more nepotism, no more jobs for friends, no more payola. That’s what’s broken and we have to fix what broke us first.

We live in a State of emergency in South Africa and I need to ask you to take this seriously and to treat this situation as such, and behave accordingly.

There is a job that needs to be done.

Get it done.

Read: "Dad, who are you voting for?" asks Darren's daughter