The Democratic Alliance on Monday welcomed another six municipal councillors to its ranks, bring its total countrywide to 1 022.
In a speech prepared for delivery to a meeting of the DA’s Cape Town Unicity caucus, Leon said 40 councillors have now crossed over to the DA during the first week of the two-week window period for councillors to change parties without losing their seats.
The window closes on September 15.
”We now have 1 022 DA councillors throughout South Africa and we have consolidated our position as the only nationwide alternative to the African National Congress. Most of our new representatives have returned to the party under whose banner they were first elected.
”They are affirming the mandate they were given by the voters to strengthen the opposition.
”Those few councillors who have left the DA apparently do not have the stomach to stand up to the ANC. They have chosen to make the rounds of every party in the ideological spectrum in search of the best deal they can find for themselves.
”Those are the kind of people that undermine public confidence in the political process,” Leon said. — Sapa