Africa-Press – South-Africa. The DA has been accused of trying to bribe an ActionSA councillor to switch allegiances to fill the void left by Zwakele Mncwango.
Mncwango resigned last week as the DA’s chief whip in the KwaZulu-Natal legislature. Three days later, he resigned from the party.
ActionSA national chairperson Michael Beaumont said: “We will tomorrow, Wednesday, 12 October, lay criminal charges of bribery against senior leaders of the Democratic Alliance, including its KZN provincial chairperson, Dean Macpherson, for attempting to bribe an ActionSA councillor from Newcastle.”
He added that the decision was made “after images surfaced of ActionSA ward councillor of Newcastle, Shandy Singh, meeting with DA leader John Steenhuisen, former chief of staff to Helen Zille, Ashor Sarupen, DA KwaZulu-Natal provincial chairperson Dean Macpherson, and DA KwaZulu-Natal provincial leader Francois Rogers”.
“ActionSA has been reliably informed that this meeting was convened to offer Mr Singh inducements to leave ActionSA and fill the DA vacancy in the KwaZulu-Natal legislature arising from the resignation of its chief whip, Zwakele Mncwango,” Beaumont said.
But the DA rubbished the allegations.
National spokesperson Cilliers Brink said the threat of criminal charges was “ludicrous at best and defamatory at worst”.
Brink added that “ActionSA’s bitter desperation has reached new lows as they waste time and resources of [the police] on lies while South Africans suffer the effects of genuine crime”.
“While this marks a new low for this party, it is not the first time that ActionSA has made wild and unsubstantiated claims to garner media attention,” Brink added.
He said the DA would not be “sidetracked by the desperation of minnows. While they (ActionSA) fight petty political battles, the DA will continue to fight for the people of South Africa”.
Beaumont was, however, adamant that his party had a strong case, and added that the targeting of its Newcastle councillor could put of the municipality back in the ANC’s hands.
He said:
“Any effort to induce a by-election in a ward won with 30% of the vote would likely be seized by the ANC and used as an effort to restore an ANC government to the municipality,” Beaumont added.
He called on the DA to put Newcastle residents ahead of efforts to settle political scores with ActionSA.
“As an organisation that purports to be principled and committed to the rule of law, it is inconceivable that financial inducements would be used to bribe public representatives,” he said.
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