Max joins Cele, but sticks with the DA
● Senior DA member Lennit Max has criticised party members who have slammed his appointment as an adviser to the police minister — saying they never raised alarm when other DA leaders served the ANC administration.
Speaking to the Sunday Times, Max said it was surprising that DA Western Cape leader Bonginkosi Madikizela was opposed to his appointment as a special adviser to Police Minister Bheki Cele.
Max, who is also a former Western Cape safety MEC, raised eyebrows when it was announced last week that he had been appointed to his new position.
Max and Cele made their first public appearance together when they visited crime victims on the Cape Flats in Mitchells Plain on Friday.
Madikizela said Max had “disowned” the DA when he criticised the party for not tapping into his experience in law enforcement. The DA had deployed Max as chairman of the sports portfolio committee in the Western Cape legislature despite his request to serve in a crime-fighting role. Max is a former commissioner of police in the Western Cape.
Max was defeated by Madikizela for the position of provincial DA leader in a tight leadership race in October.
“I don’t understand his [Madikizela’s] rationale to attack me about DA membership because the DA employed Vusi Pikoli and they didn’t request him to abandon his ANC membership to serve as ombudsman of the Western Cape police. That’s the one thing. And then several other people, like Tony Leon, Sandra Botha and Douglas Gibson, served as ambassadors appointed by national government, which is ANC, and there was no brouhaha about it.
“So I find it really disturbing, and instead of him focusing on the issues of the people of the Western Cape he’s concentrating and wasting time on my [DA] membership,” he said.
Max’s appointment has fuelled speculation that he will join the ANC.
ANC sources in the Western Cape, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the matter was supposed to remain confidential, confirmed they were wooing Max to their ranks.
But Max said he had no intention of joining the ANC — at least for now.
“That was not even a consideration . . . I am a member of the DA until such time that I decide to change it or not,” said Max.