Africa-Press – South-Africa. Former African National Congress (ANC) provincial secretary Neville Delport claims that by disbanding the ANC’s provincial executive committee (PEC) last week, the party has further sidelined its coloured supporters in the Western Cape.
Delport on Wednesday jumped ship to the Democratic Alliance (DA), where the party said he will campaign in rural communities ahead of the next local government elections.
Delport led the ANC’s Rural for Change movement in 2024’s elections to garner support from marginalised farming and fishing communities.
Delport said he was stonewalled by the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) in trying to raise the matter of the coloured question in the Western Cape.
He claims that the NEC flatly refused to consider adding anti-apartheid activist Allan Boesak to its candidate lists in 2024’s elections to encourage support in the Cape Town metro.
Defecting to the DA, he said, had been a difficult decision.
“It’s going to be a tough road ahead but I’m willing to do it for all citizens of the Western Cape and, in particular, our coloured communities that suffer in the rural regions.”
Welcoming Delport to the party, the party’s federal council chairperson, Helen Zille, said while the DA is a non-racial party, it cannot discount the marginalisation and exclusion felt by some communities.
“Any political party would be stupid to deny that, and to turn their back on that. And so, we take it seriously. The DA always strives for diversity.”
Meanwhile, ANC’s provincial spokesperson, Sifiso Mtsweni, said the DA will dump Delport in the same way it has with other coloured leaders in the past.
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