Voluntarily gave up job

IN response to the letter, “DA lack of confidence in coloureds shown” (April 6), the views of the author, Lawrence Troon, are those of his own misconstrued perceptions.

His assertion that the motion of no confidence in Athol Trollip, mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, has revealed that the DA has no confidence in its coloured councillors or supporters, is ludicrous.

But let me get to the real issues and put them in perspective.

It should not have been a surprise when the mayor announced that Marlon Daniels, PA councillor, would replace me as member of the mayoral committee (MMC) for transport. I was not axed. I voluntarily offered my position as MMC in the interest of the party and I pride myself in that.

We serve as MMCs by the invitation of the mayor.

We as MMCs offered our positions because we understand the dynamics of coalitions, but most importantly, we uphold the values of our party.

Troon’s statement, that more and more coloured leaders within the DA are used and disposed of by our party, must be rejected with the contempt it deserves.

The examples he uses to base his assumptions on are factually incorrect.

Some of these members have allegedly transgressed in one way or another and were subjected to a fair internal disciplinary process, which in some cases have not been concluded yet.

The DA is a party of discipline and no one is bigger than the organisation.

In the DA we work as a collective.

I and hundreds of DA foot soldiers did our bit during the 2016 election campaign to obtain maximum votes for our party.

The DA supporters did not vote for Rano Kayser in the northern areas, but they voted for the DA and the election results showed it.

Leaders will come and go, but the values of the party will remain.

The same goes for the launch of the integrated public transport system (IPTS).

While the IPTS operations fall within my portfolio of transport, it was a collective effort by the DA political leadership and municipal officials.

That I publicly stated at the launch of the bus system.

Troon even got the composition of the mayoral committee wrong.

While he singles me out as a coloured, he conveniently forgets about Shirley Sauls, MMC constituency services, Lance Grootboom, MMC public health, and Jonathan Lawack, council speaker.

All MMCs are as a collective keeping the wheels of service delivery going in this metro.

I want to reiterate that Troon’s political expediency with convenient assumptions, which only entertain his political masters, can be no further from the truth and should be rejected with the contempt they deserve.

The DA is a diverse party and our track record speaks for itself.

No race group is taken for granted or elevated above another.

We are united in our cause.