DA unveils ambitious plan
WORRIED: COSATU SAYS OPPOSITION IS CAPITALISING ON ANC’S WEAKNESSES
Maimane’s party reveals strategy they hope will lead to a change of government.
Trade union federation Cosatu is worried that opposition parties are capitalising on the ANC’s weaknesses in the run-up to the 2019 general elections, as factions threaten to drive deeper divisions within the party and the tripartite alliance.
The DA yesterday announced an ambitious election strategy which, should it succeed, would see members of the ANC and opposition parties working together during their election campaigns and beyond in a bid to have the ruling party voted out of power.
“It is worrying to see that opposition parties are capitalising on weaknesses and factionalism that is engulfing the ANC,” said Cosatu spokesperson Sizwe Pamla.
“When you look at where the ANC is, it is worrying for us because you have an ANC that no longer functions as a unitary organisation, so it is just dominated by factions.
“We feel that [in] the 2016 local government elections, there was a message that should have been decoded by all of us that people were running out of patience.”
Asked whether the party was worried about members of the party going rogue and working with opposition parties, ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe dismissively replied: “They have not come to me so I can’t comment on it and I can’t speculate as I have never spoken to a DA person who wanted me to work with them.”
Yesterday, DA leader Mmusi Maimane said his party has been in talks with ANC members and other opposition parties to campaign for a coalition government after the 2019 general elections.
This was based on the premise that there would be no majority win for any political party at the polls, which has prompted the DA to begin negotiations with its current coalition partners, with which it runs several municipalities and metros, as well as unnamed members of the ANC.
The terms and strategies under which the party claimed to be working with the ANC members was unclear, but DA spokesperson Mabine Seabe said these members were in talks with Maimane.
“[Maimane] is talking to everyone, including those within the ANC. We speak with people in confidence, articulating the direction we want to take the country in,” he said.