Africa-Press – South-Africa. DA leader John Steenhuisen has likened the multi-party national convention this week to the Codesa negotiations to end apartheid.
He also took a swipe at “naysayers” who believe opposition parties “are too egotistical” and would never be able to put their differences aside.
“The naysayers were wrong,” said Steenhuisen.
He was speaking on Tuesday, when “addressing the nation” about the convention.
The convention is on Wednesday and Thursday in Kempton Park, Johannesburg.
In April, following his re-election as DA leader, Steenhuisen proposed a moonshot pact to delegates at the party’s elective congress.
He said the pact with “like-minded political parties, civil society organisations and civic movements” would defeat the ANC, keep the EFF out, and inaugurate a new national opposition coalition government.
While other political parties have rejected the pact, several others, including ActionSA, IFP and FF-Plus, are part of the pact.
And these parties will meet for the convention, which Steenhuisen has called “historic”.
Steenhuisen said:
“This week, we have an opportunity to do so once again. To do what South Africans have always done best: get around the table, talk to each other, and rise above adversity.”
Renowned professor, William Gumede, has been appointed to chair the convention independently.
Steenhuisen said the convention would be “one of the most important in the history of opposition politics in our country”.
He added that “months of hard work” from all political party leaders part of the moonshot pact gave rise to the convention.
According to Steenhuisen, political party leaders have been meeting every week in the past three months “to painstakingly cultivate the common ground required for a convention”.
“This symbolises that we have successfully built and gotten our rocket ship onto the launch pad. Now, we must ensure that, on Wednesday and Thursday, we have a successful launch of our moonshot mission to rescue South Africa,” he said.
Steenhuisen said his party hoped that, from the convention, would emerge “an agreement that offers real hope and solutions to the many problems our country faces”.
“The moonshot pact has captured the public imagination like no other opposition project has ever done in the history of our democracy.”
And, as such, it was important, cautioned Steenhuisen, that “we dare not mess it up now”.
He said the pact was not only an “anti-ANC project”, but it must bring “real solutions to the urgent problems” facing the country.
“It is my sincere hope that we will emerge from the convention with a document that articulates our shared values and the minimum policies a pact government would implement to fix the problems plaguing our country. I ask that you – the people of South Africa – judge the convention on the basis of the solutions it offers to you,” he said.
Steenhuisen thanked the leaders of opposition parties in the moonshot pact.
He said IFP leader Velenkosini Hlabisa “has been a pillar of strength in our negotiations so far”.
The IFP, according to Steenhuisen, has “led from the front on this project”.
“And it is thanks, in no small part, to the great leaders in the IFP that the moonshot is already well on its way in KwaZulu-Natal,” he said.
In June, News24 revealed that the DA and the IFP were finalising a deal to govern together in some municipalities in the province – and, in July, the parties signed a service delivery pact.
Last week, this service delivery pact led to the DA’s Christo Botha being elected as the deputy mayor of the uMhlathuze Local Municipality.
This was after the DA accepted an offer from the IFP to field a candidate for the vacant deputy mayor position in the IFP-led municipality.
In his address, Steenhuisen spoke glowingly about the opposition party leaders who are part of the moonshot pact, but City Press reported on Sunday that the parties were going into the convention on “shaky ground”.
According to the paper, some of the moonshot pact partners are seemingly unhappy with the DA allegedly “silently working on a coalition agreement with the ANC”.
However, Steenhuisen rubbished the allegations.
“These are just allegations, without any basis, and nothing will stop us from strengthening our relationship with our partners,” he told the City Press.
The national convention is hot on the heels of the national dialogue, which was hosted by the government regarding the future of coalitions after next year’s general elections.
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