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Democratic Alliance leader John Steenhuisen says the party has a plan to rescue South Africa and the Eastern Cape in particular.
He was speaking during the party's provincial manifesto launch on Wednesday in West End in Gqeberha's northern areas.
He was accompanied by the Eastern Cape provincial leader Andrew Whitfield and other party leadership.
"The ANC has turned this province from the province of hope to the province of hunger," said Steenhuisen.
Core aspects of the DA's manifesto included addressing the issue of childhood malnutrition in the Eastern Cape, and crime, especially in the city's crime-ridden northern areas.
"Children are starving to death, and the DA will increase the child support grant by R250, cut VAT on certain products so that parents can buy and put food on the table for their children."
He said just a few months ago, outside Butterworth, a 38-year-old mom mixed rat poison with the last food she had in her house, and fed it to her three starving young children before hanging herself.
"The bodies of what had once been a beautiful family were only discovered days later when the debt collector she had turned to as a desperate last attempt to keep her family alive, showed up at the door.
"This is just one of the tragic stories of thousands of families that go to bed hungry every night in this province," Steenhuisen said.
To remedy this situation, he said immediately after the election, a DA government would implement the recommendation by the Human Rights Commission to declare hunger in the Eastern Cape as a disaster in terms of the Disaster Management Act.
The DA leader said this would free up the resources we need to get more food into the bellies of hungry children and families.
"The DA's rescue plan also includes increasing the child support grant to the food poverty line, to R760 per month. This would immediately put an extra R250 into the hands of caregivers to be able to afford enough food for their children.
"But our immediate response to this crisis will go further still. The DA will also make food cheaper," he added.
Steenhuisen said their rescue plan would achieve this by expanding the number of food items that are exempt from Value-Added Tax, which he said would "immediately lead to a 15% reduction in the cost of essential items, including baby food, beans, and chicken."
Turning to the issue of crime, particularly in NMB's northern areas, he said the DA plans to get more boots on the ground.
Asked whether he thinks there are enough police officers employed to implement his plan for more visible policing, he answered: "No, we don't. We are understaffed and police officers are fighting against organised crimes. Resources such as the shot spotters, drone footage, and intelligence-led policing should be how we go about fighting crime."
Quizzed on why the party appeared to be targeting the northern areas after also hosting their poster flighting campaign in Gelvandale a couple of weeks ago, he said: "This is a swing vote area. We want to make a clear offer to people because these are the same people who wasted their votes the last time."
He also encouraged people to vote for the DA as it is the party with the desire to rescue the people of the Eastern Cape.
He concluded by saying that he would be visiting various metro's of the country as well as rural parts of the province before returning to Nelson Mandela Bay before the elections
