Defections all part of election ‘spectacle’
Three DA councillors cross over to ANC
THE DA in KwaZulu-Natal says that its members who defected to the ANC yesterday know that the party’s constitution stipulates that their membership ceases to exist.
The party’s former provincial leader Sizwe Mchunu, alongside three of the party’s councillors from the embattled Msunduzi Local Municipality, were unveiled to the media as new members of the ANC.
The three councillors are Claudell Chetty Naidoo, ward 28 councillor in Msunduzi, Renesha Jugmohan, ward 30 councillor in Msunduzi and Nalene Naidoo Atwaru a former ward 33 councillor and PR councillor in that municipality.
Former National Freedom Party provincial deputy chairperson Njabulo Mlaba was among those who made the move to the ANC.
Mchunu is also a former DA caucus leader in the provincial legislature and served as the DA’s first non-white provincial leader. He served in the role between 2009 and 2015 before relinquishing that role after being defeated by incumbent provincial leader Zwakele Mncwango at the DA’s 2015 provincial congress in Richards Bay.
Explaining his move to the DA’s rivals in the province, Mchunu said he had no doubt that “the vehicle and machinery” that was capable of saving South Africa was the ANC.
“Today is about me beginning the journey to assist the ANC in its endeavour to save South Africa, but also to give South Africa a future, and we can only do that with the journey that begins here today.”
When asked why he had opted to defect from the DA, Mchunu said that he was not in a game of trashing other political parties and that for South Africa to prosper, the ANC must grow and prove to be capable of delivering to the country’s citizens.
He said it was time to rebuild South Africa and that if anybody had a passion for the project of saving the country and making it work, they should associate themselves with the “machinery that is there to save South Africa”.
He said he was still a serving member of the provincial legislature under the banner of the DA because he had not been fired.
“This has been a purely voluntary act,” said Mchunu. However, the party’s provincial leader Zwakele Mncwango said that once a party member declared publicly that they were joining another party, their membership was terminated.
“We can’t allow a defection to take away from our main focus to build one South Africa for all and to eliminate corruption, improve security and secure our borders,” Mncwango said.
Ralph Mathekga, a political analyst, said the move did not send a positive message for the DA. When people were making “this spectacle” of a move, it sent a message that the party they were leaving was incoherent and weak, raising doubts about its prospects.
“On the other hand, don’t think it’s a big issue because the reality is we all know this happens every time shortly before the elections. People are paraded all over the place by their new parties.
“There’s nothing new here. Next week you might start seeing people defecting from the ANC to the DA. It helps (the ANC) send a message that they are stronger, but people always defect at this time because they’re sometimes promised opportunities by their new party, but it’s the usual pre-election spectacle,” Mathekga said.