The merging of the DA and Agang

Any political step, such as an opposition coalition, mergers or splits in the ANC which weakens the dominance of the ANC in politics should be welcomed.

The question is whether the merging of the DA and Agang will contribute to reducing the ANC's current dominance of South Africa's politics.

Dr. Mamphele Ramphele has a political struggle past which gives her special credibility to recruit, especially, black votes which is out of the reach of the DA with their middle-class image. Precisely because of this, Dr. Ramphele asked at the time of the establishment of Agang: "What would I have accomplished if I had joined the DA or even a newly-established DA. Nothing."

The logical question is what has changed now? These voters had supported Agang exactly because they weren't prepared to support the DA. Will Dr. Ramphele succeed in taking these Agang voters with to the DA or are they lost as anti-ANC voters?

A process through which specific political parties obtain the majority of their votes from their niche markets to work together in a coalition thereafter has proven in other countries to have gained in total more opposition votes as a merging of diverse parties. That is why the FF Plus supports the idea of a Democratic Collective of which Agang could also have become a member.

According to current information, the DA's name, logo and policy will not change in any way after the merger. The current process is therefore paralleling the process through which the ID was swallowed by the DA and where their leader, Patricia de Lille, was given a prominent position in the DA but the ordinary members and supporters had disappeared.

Statement issued by Dr. Pieter Mulder, FF Plus leader, January 28 2014

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