Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille should “buy an engagement ring”, Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille said on Sunday, as talk grew of a merger between the two parties.
“I don’t who is going to buy the engagement ring,” said De Lille.
She was welcomed with cheers and whistles as she arrived on stage with Zille at the DA’s federal congress in Cape Town.
“I think Helen can buy it. She can afford it,” De Lille said to laughter and applause from the audience.
De Lille and her party have entered into an extended period of courtship with the DA in a bid to “realign” opposition politics in South Africa.
De Lille has been circumspect about a union between the parties. The DA, however, is determined to arrange a marriage to consolidate its lead as the country’s foremost opposition party, particularly in the run up to the local government elections in 2011.
Deadline
Nevertheless, De Lille said the ID had set its leaders a deadline of September 20 to “conclude negotiations with like-minded opposition parties”.
“In the next few weeks the leaders of the ID will work very hard together with the leaders of the Democratic Alliance to make sure that we start a process whereby we can work out what is the best way for both political parties to go forward,” she said.
De Lille was critical of observers who have compared her to Marthinus Van Schalkwyk, former leader of the New National Party, who defected to the African National Congress.
She said that during her weeks of travel across the country to consult with ID structures, it had become clear there was overwhelming support for the ID’s leadership to talk with opposition parties.
‘Unlike Kortbroek [Van Schalkwyk] who jumped off his sinking ship into the arms of the ANC, alone, and left his membership behind, the ID’s leadership, members and supporters will go in the same direction,” she said.
“Mr Van Schalkwyk did not fight in the struggle against apartheid, nor did he fight in the next 16 years against corruption in the ANC. Now instead of stroking our own ego’s we have a vision of a strong new entity, one that is greater than the sum of our individual parties.”
ANC corruption, greed
De Lille was deeply critical of the governance record of the ANC and its youth league.
“We see groups like the ANC Youth League and its leader trying to distract the attention of the poor away from the true source of poverty, which is ANC corruption and greed. The ANC government — which has for many years missed its own service delivery targets — suddenly became a lot better organised when it came to hosting the World Cup soccer. It made most of the deadlines, supervised the building of world-class infrastructure and reminded us repeatedly of how we delivered a world-class event,” she said.
‘But for the past 16 years the same ANC has failed to deliver world-class education, health services, water and electricity to every South African”.