About 170 Democratic Party members on Sunday defected to the New National Party but the DP denied they were party members, saying the NNP was pulling a media stunt. ”I can’t call them members because they were never integrated into the DA,” party representative Jack Bloom said on Sunday. He said the announcement of the defection was merely a publicity stunt. NNP leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk, welcoming the defectors at Evaton, south of Johannesburg, on Sunday said his party was seeking a mutual accommodation between the interests of the majority and the interests of minority communities. – Sapa