Nonkululeko Gobodo has joined politics.
- Nonkululeko Gobodo has announced that she has joined Change Starts Now.
- Change Starts Now leader Roger Jardine shared the announcement on social media platform X on Thursday.
- Gobodo joins a list of other prominent South Africans who have backed Jardine’s party.
Nonkululeko Gobodo, the first black female chartered accountant in South Africa, has joined politics. On Thursday, on X, Change Start Now leader Roger Jardine shared a video of Gobodo announcing that she had joined the party.
Jardine captioned the video by saying: “An inspirational South African and someone I am grateful to have on our team is Nonkululeko Gobodo. Thank you for taking up the call to choose the change lane of [the] election 2024!”.
In the video, Gobodo said she joined Change Start Now because:
I got tired of sitting at home watching my country taking a path towards destruction, feeling helpless, despondent and angry. I came to a place where I realised that at a time like this, leaders ought to rise and do something about saving their country.
She added that if South Africans do not “rise” in this election and do “something about saving our country, history will judge us.
“The people of South Africa are not helpless; it is all in our hands to do something about changing our country and saving our country. And I look at the rest of Africa; the people of Africa were exactly where we are today, watching their countries going towards a cliff. Did they do enough? When they look at their countries, did they do enough?
Gobodo added:
I do not want to be in a position where I sit in a situation where my country has fallen over the cliff, and I ask myself this question: did we as South Africans do enough? This election of 2024 is an opportunity for us all to do something about changing our country, come and join us at Change Starts Now because change starts today. There is no other opportunity to change our country and save our country, but now. Let us not wait; there is something you can do: come and join us.
Gobodo, who not only serves on numerous boards but was recently appointed as the chancellor of Walter Sisulu University, has joined the likes of Nicole Fritz, who resigned as head of the Helen Suzman Foundation to join Change Starts Now, as well as health activist Mark Heywood.
On Monday, Jardine unveiled the party’s manifesto in Kliptown, Soweto, where he promised several reforms if the party where to come into power.
These include a “ReGrow” fund proposal in Parliament to tackle South Africa’s infrastructure crisis, resolve logistical bottlenecks, and increase GDP growth to above 2.5%.
Among other promises by Change Starts Now were imposing an additional annual 1.5% wealth tax on the rich for three years, while corporate tax will see an increase from 28% to 32.2% for three years – and that people earning more than R1.8 million per annum will see a tax increase of 4.5% for three years.
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