Hundreds of ANC Western Cape members join DA - De Lille

8 June 2016

Cape Town – More than 300 disgruntled African National Congress members in the Western Cape have jumped ship and joined the Democratic Alliance.

Western Cape DA leader Patricia de Lille welcomed the Khayelitsha members into the fold on Tuesday night.

"These new members came to the DA after losing faith in the lack of ANC leadership and failed ANC structures within the Western Cape," she said on Wednesday.

The ANC in the province has been plagued by disputes over the list of candidates for the August 3 local government elections, forcing the postponement of the party’s manifesto launch last week.

De Lille said the new members would see the DA make significant strides in the election. 

"The ANC in the Western Cape is slowly being eroded from our political landscape," she said.

ANC Western Cape spokesperson Yonela Diko said it was no secret that some of their members had reservations about the candidate lists.

"But we have engaged many members in order to inculcate the timeless ANC values that no one is entitled to anything in the ANC."He said the DA was being desperate in encouraging such "entitlements".

"It has resulted in the internal fights within the DA in many parts of the province over how they choose councillors. Their sense of entitlement is catching up with them," he said.

He said Khayelitsha was one of the most poorly-serviced areas in the DA-run Western Cape.

This article first appeared on News24, see here.