/ 11 June 2009

ACDP withdraws from Cape Town coalition

The African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) has withdrawn from the Cape Town multiparty municipal government, ACDP leader Kenneth Meshoe announced on Thursday.

At the same time, the ACDP would withdraw from all other municipalities in the Western Cape where it governed with the Democratic Alliance, Meshoe told a media briefing at Parliament.

This leaves the DA-led coalition in Cape Town with 110 seats on the 210-seat council. The ACDP has seven seats.

Those still in the coalition are the DA with 93 seats, the Independent Democrats with 16 and the United Democratic Movement with one seat — effectively giving the ID the balance of power in the council.

The ANC holds 73 seats and smaller parties the rest, while there are also five vacancies to be filled within the next few weeks.

Meshoe said the ACDP had withdrawn because of the ”bad faith” of the DA, which had broken the 2006 city multiparty agreement. The DA had used its larger caucus numbers in council to oust former deputy executive mayor Grant Haskin of the ACDP, allegedly basing their decision on allegations against two other ACDP office bearers.

The DA had still not provided details of the allegations in spite of a written undertaking to do so on May 11.

Meshoe said the DA had publicly admitted it wanted Haskin’s post ”to be as effective as possible politically”.

”This proves that their taking the post has nothing to do with their claims and allegations against the ACDP.

”The ACDP walks away from governing with the DA in the Western Cape because we are not prepared to be used and discarded by the DA when they no longer need us, this particularly after they needed us to begin governing and to achieve the remarkable success in governing,” Meshoe said.

The other municipalities affected are Theewaterskloof, George and Mossel Bay. — Sapa