LISTEN: Maimane lays out Build One SA’s election ambitions for 2024

Build One South Africa (Bosa) leader Mmusi Maimane has gone from a mayoral candidate to the leader of the biggest opposition party in South Africa and now, as the leader of his own political party, has his sights set on parliament in the 2024 general election.

He believes Bosa holds the potential to gain up to 12% of the vote.

The centrist, non-ANC black vote is in his sights and he is building appeal and making inroads into the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) traditional voter base. It’s ambitious, but he believes it’s doable because, he said, John Steenhuisen’s DA retreated after his departure in 2019.

“This is about where this country’s got to go. And we can’t make our politics, politics of just race or minorityism or regional or religion. It has to be politics of the ideas of and values for all citizens we share common values with.”

Maimane has doubts about the moonshot pact and said it holds an inherent danger to individual party identity and could backfire.

“Voters might get confused, thinking if you vote for any one of the parties, it’s like voting for the DA.”

Listen: Mmusi Mainmane in the hot seat with Hein

This could either erode a DA vote or eventually decimate smaller parties within the pact. In addition, said Maimane, it might simply serve as a vote consolidation and not gain fresh support by dressing up legacy organisations in a fashionable catchphrase.

“They’re not going to suddenly vote for them because they are all in one place. It’s a contestation.

“This next election is a choice between old versus new and old parties are indicating signs of decline and new are focused on the future. That’s the choice.”

He said there is a gap in the centre, which is where Bosa fits in.

“You get the ANC who are large and corrupt; you get the DA who are a minority party; you get the EFF who are mobilising on the basis of race or a particular position. What happens after that? You have a regional party, religious party or racial party.”

Maimane said the space in the middle is a space for building one South Africa. His key port of call is the disaffected and notoriously politically apathetic youth.

He wants to mobilise them and get them to the polls.

“We need to inspire them with a message of hope this is about their jobs, about their future, it’s about their education and how they’re safeguarded.”