Citrusdal | Saturday
THE Democratic Alliance had lost more members to the New National Party in the last two months than the total number of delegates expected to attend their founding congress in Johannesburg this weekend, NNP leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk said on Saturday.
Addressing the party’s West Coast regional conference in Citrusdal in the Western Cape, he said more than 300 members of the DA had joined his party on Saturday.
”They are part of a wave of mass defections which began because DA leader Tony Leon and the DA leadership have broken trust with the people on their promises,” Van Schalkwyk said.
He said it was clear that voters had realised that the DA’s approach to politics was an unproductive one.
Van Schalkwyk said the NNP believed that the common ground that exists between white, coloured, Indian and black communities formed a firm foundation for the new South Africa.
”We are building on that foundation and acting as the voice in government of our supporters,” Van Schalkwyk said.
The NNP believed that only by working together would South Africa succeed.
”This is why we are taking the communities which we represent back into the political mainstream through the creation of participatory government with the ANC.”
On Friday, the Democratic Alliance said it was set to unveil its new constitution during its first ever congress since the Democratic Party, the New National Party and the Federal Alliance merged two years ago.
The inaugural congress is scheduled for Johannesburg’s Nasrec over the weekend.
Interviewed on Radio 702 on Friday, DA Leader Tony Leon said the new constitution was aimed at sealing the unity of the three political parties’ former members whose delegates, he said, were expected to arrive ”in their hundreds” by trains and busses from around the country.
Leon said he did not know whether his position would be challenged but added he had learned through the media that two candidates were set to vie for his position.
Media speculations suggested earlier this week that DA national chairman Joe Seremane planned to challenge Leon for the top position, but Seremane had since dismissed that.
The congress takes place amid the scandal of its Western Cape leader and Cape Town Mayor Gerald Morkel having accepted millions of rands in donations from discredited German law fugitive and billionaire Jurgen Harksen.
The federal council earlier met in Johannesburg in preparation of the congress.
DA management committee chairman James Selfe said that apart from the congress, the council also discussed the Harksen scandal which ”had attracted a lot of publicity”.
Selfe said the council could not find any reason to believe that there had been illegal or corrupt conduct in Morkel’s acceptance of the donation although it considered his relationship with Harksen as inappropriate.- Sapa