The Independent Democrats (ID) will campaign to take over the provincial Western Cape government in the 2009 elections, party leader Patricia de Lille said on Saturday.
”The signs are there; written in the results of most of the by-elections we have fought this year,” she said at the party’s national conference in Cape Town.
”Looking at the results of the by-elections in Riviersonderend and Drakenstein, it is clear that the ID will be campaigning for the government of the Western Cape in 2009.”
De Lille said the party attracted people who were ”disillusioned and disenfranchised” by the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and the official opposition, the Democratic Alliance (DA).
She added that the party had ”no-one to fear but God”.
”There is no such thing as a no-go area for the ID. There are no racial or geographical boundaries for the ID and we fear no-one but God.
”From the 45 000 members we had in 2004, we have increased our membership to 160 000,” she said, adding that the party would obtain one million votes in the 2009 election.
De Lille slammed increasing violence against women and children in South Africa.
”We are living in a sick society where young children are raped, abused and murdered, almost on a daily basis … there is absolutely no justification for these horrendous crimes,” she said, referring to the murders of 11-year old Annestacia Wiese, two-year-old Sonja Brown and six-year-old Mikayla Rossouw.
”Women and children are supposed to be loved and cared for, and not abused.”
De Lille urged communities to break the silence and expose family members committing these crimes.
”Those of us who do not speak up before it is too late have the blood of these children on our hands. The family and the home should be the safest places in our society and not a crime scene,” she said.
”I predict that we are on the edge of a massive uprising by the decent people who see no action from the state. History has shown that society will only take so much before they begin to execute justice themselves.”
”I fear we are not far away from this. Innocent people will probably become casualties as the desire for revenge takes over our communities,” she added.
She described the latest crime statistics as shocking and reiterated her call for government to convene a crime summit.
She said the ID has written to the Speaker in Parliament to force it to deliver on its mandate by responding to President Thabo Mbeki’s call for a summit on crime, poverty and transformation in his state of the nation address.
She also rounded on the ANC’s conduct at its recent policy conference saying: ”The ANC’s recent policy conference should rather have been called the succession conference. They have been more obsessed with personalities and power than with policies for the people.”
”It is time that South Africa considers the option of directly electing our president at the ballot box,” she said.
De Lille said it was ”criminal” that state money was not spent while the poor continued to suffer.
”We need a government that can spend money as well as it collects it. It is criminal that while our poor continue to suffer billions of rand go unspent.”
De Lille told elected leaders thinking of crossing to other political party’s during the floor-crossing period in September to ”leave now”.
” … I want to appeal to all elected leaders to consider the following questions: Do you want to be part of the fastest growing political party in South Africa?
”Do you want to be part of the victory celebrations as we take by-elections? and lastly, do you want to be there at the front in 2009, when we achieve our one million votes for bridging the divides?”
”Those of you who cannot find the right answers to these questions and still want to betray our voters can leave now,” she said. – Sapa