Former ANC Provincial Treasurer and current Provincial Task Team (PTT) member, Derick Appel, has shot down rumours of him defecting to the Democratic Alliance.

The rumours came after the ANC’s provincial Secretary-General, Neville Delport, recently defected to the DA and stated during a media briefing that more defections would be approaching.

The announcement of Delport’s new political membership was made by DA Federal Council Chair Helen Zille at a media briefing in Cape Town on Wednesday.

The party also welcomed three other ANC councillors who have crossed the floor, including Daniel Baadjies, Bonnievale Ward Councillor, Paul Strauss, Cederberg Ward Councillor, and Jason Donn, Regional Executive Member.

“In the ANC after the reconfiguration that was announced two weeks ago, you would see a conference that we won… We were actually thrown out, replaced by leaders who lost a conference, and those leaders are particularly in the metro.

“Now those leaders do not represent the will of our coloured communities, and that is where we are stuck. Then we took a decision as a collective, and as I’ve said, many (others) will follow, to make sure that we need to find a new political home, and that new political home is the Democratic Alliance,” Delport had said.

“What upset me more was that when the PTT was announced, people were totally taken off, replaced by somebody else. A faction aligned to a particular group in the National Executive Committee (NEC). The ANC National Working Committee (NWC) did not consider the majority of voters in the Western Cape when appointing the task team.”

Delport said he took issue with the fact that when they were compiling the internal ANC list for positions, and for Appel to “be number one on the list, just after the (provincial) election, (he was) removed from the list as number one”.

Appel responded to being mentioned in the briefing, saying that he has been approached “in the silly season of political floor crossing” but has decided not to leave the ANC, “whatever one’s emotions”.

“I have always served as a proud Riviersonderend-born rural leader with a heart for the people. I was shaped by the soil of small towns and the spirit of communities that never give up on themselves. My calling has never been about titles. It has always been about trust. About standing up for those who feel unseen, unheard and forgotten.

“I am concerned that leaders in the coloured community are deliberately pushed out by some within the ANC, however, I will fight to ensure that the voice of coloured people will be heard within the ANC,” he said.

He said that he had the honour of serving as Speaker of the Theewaterskloof Municipality, Regional Secretary of Overberg, and Provincial Treasurer of the ANC in his career.

“In recent days, I have been inundated with messages about rumours claiming that I am leaving the movement I have dedicated my life to. Let me be clear. I am not leaving.

“I am deeply disappointed and disheartened that gossip can be used as a weapon to divide and weaken us. This is not just about me. It is about what such rumours do to the spirit of our organisation. They corrode trust, discourage unity and distract us from the work that truly matters,” Appel said.

ANC national spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu on Wednesday said Delport’s “exit affirms the correctness and necessity of the ongoing reconfiguration process, which seeks to restore the ANC’s integrity, discipline, and ideological clarity”.

“The ANC’s mission in the Western Cape is to unite all South Africans, black (Africans, Coloureds, Indians) and white; behind one vision of a non-racial, non-sexist, democratic, and prosperous South Africa. We seek a province where the children of Bonteheuwel, Delft, Khayelitsha, Gugulethu, and Mitchells Plain can live with the same dignity, safety, and opportunity as those in Franschhoek, Stellenbosch, and Sandton,” Bhengu said.

“This is the essence of our revolution: the restoration of dignity and equality for all.”

theolin.tembo@inl.co.za

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