Flamboyant Western Cape politician Peter Marais says he is to quit the New National Party and start up his own party. He is to formally announce the move at a media briefing in Cape Town on Thursday afternoon.
He told Sapa on Thursday morning that the new party would ”focus on the indigent and become the voice of the poor”.
”I have my sights on 2004, and I think our people must come home,” he said. ”My rallying call will be, ‘come home’.”
Marais, who was ousted from both the provincial premiership and the position of Cape Town mayor in controversial circumstances, is currently facing NNP disciplinary charges relating to alleged kickbacks from the Roodefontein golf estate development at Plettenberg Bay.
He is out on R10 000 bail for corruption charges related to the same matter. A populist who at one stage was seen as the NNP’s key to the coloured vote in the Western Cape, he said on Thursday the party had only had a future while FW de Klerk was leader.
”Since then it went into a downward spiral. It’s like a rocket out of control.” – Sapa