DA unfazed as De Lille’s Good party gets started
Western Cape leader brushes aside warning from KZN counterpart over former City mayor
DA WESTERN Cape leader Bonginkosi Madikizela says his party is not worried about Patricia’s de Lille’s Good movement, which is preparing to solidify its structures.
His words come after reports that DA KZN leader Zwakele Mncwango cautioned the party not to celebrate De Lille’s exit.
“The DA’s focus is on the campaign and service delivery. People have come and gone in the DA; we have been growing consistently since 1994.
“We are therefore not worried at all about what Patricia or anyone else outside the DA is doing,” Madikizela said.
De Lille, the former Cape Town mayor, announced yesterday that her newly-established Good party had finalised its registration as a political party with the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) and “excellent progress” was being made to build a base to prepare for a competitive election, and establish national leadership, she said yesterday.
“The IEC notified us this week that Good has been registered and that registration is now subject to a 30-day appeal period. We are now preparing for the competitive 2019 elections, which we plan to contest robustly,” De Lille said in a statement.
“We have opened a national head office in Goodwood in Cape Town, which has become the nerve centre of our national operations. Staff and volunteers at our head office have been processing tens of thousands of membership applications and pledges of support, and we are creating a nationwide database of South Africans who enthusiastically embrace our vision and who have responded to my call,” she said.
This week, the party was expected to constitute its first national leadership committee (NLC), which would host a policy conference next weekend, with delegates from across the country expected to attend.
“On Sunday, January 20, and at the conclusion of the policy conference, we will announce the composition of our national leadership committee and the policy positions we have adopted,” De Lille said.
After a turbulent year in the DA, with several controversies, De Lille announced that she was stepping down as mayor and resigning as a member of the DA.
However, she took a few people by surprise when she announced that she would be launching a new party.
Leaving the DA, De Lille was followed by nine councillors who resigned from the Cape Town council. She said the former supporters were joining her new party because they supported its values.
De Lille added that the party was sitting with 60 000 signed-up supporters, the majority from Gauteng.