THE ANC in the Western Cape says it is good riddance that four of its leaders, including its former provincial secretary, have left for the DA, accusing them of having collaborated with the enemy to mess up the province’s main opposition party and kill it. 

Former ANC provincial secretary, Neville Delport, two councillors, and the regional leader appeared at the DA’s media briefing in Cape Town on November 5 as new members. Others who crossed to the DA are former ANC ward councillors Daniel Baadjies from Langeberg and Paul Strauss from Cederberg, as well as former ANC regional executive member Jason Donn.

ANC Western Cape’s Provincial Task Team spokesperson, Sifiso Mtsweni, accused the defected leaders of having collaborated with the DA in destroying the ANC. 

The ANC has failed to reclaim the province, which it lost to the DA in 2009.

Delport, who was elected provincial secretary at the ANC 2023 provincial congress, became the highest provincial ANC figure to join the DA ahead of next year’s local government elections. 

He lost his position after the ANC’s National Executive Committee (NEC) had, on October 30, replaced the provincial executive committee (PEC) with the provincial task team (PTT). 

Delport expressed anger that the NEC used the reconfiguration of the provincial leadership to put those defeated in the conference in power through the back door. 

He said the current PTT was dominated by members of the previous PTT that operated before the conference. 

He was also concerned that top members of the PTT were all Africans, except its convenor, Ebrahim Rasool. 

Mtsweni said the ANC’s former leaders contributed to the party losing 10% of votes during last year’s general elections and performing “below par during by-elections recently”.

“The defection of these individuals proves the assertion that they were always ‘sleepers’ in the leadership of the ANC who have been working along with the DA to weaken the ANC and ultimately kill it,” said Mtsweni.

Unlike in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, where the ANC reconfigured and included the elected top five members in the PTT in the Western Cape, all top five leaders, except former chairperson Vuyiso “JJ” Tyhalisisu, were removed from the PTT.

Delport, his former deputy, Ayanda Bans, former deputy provincial chairperson, Sharon Davids, and former provincial treasurer, Derrick Appel, were demoted to the additional members’ list.

“Our structures (in the Western Cape) became severely weakened over the past two years (after the disbanded top five were elected). 

“It is precisely for this reason that the ANC reconfigured the provincial executive committee to ensure that there is increased capacity with experienced leaders who are credible and have a proven track record of integrity, delivery, and loyalty to the movement,” said Mtsweni.  

Hitting back, Delport said the defection was due to the ANC excluding its coloured leaders from the RTT’s top structure. 

He described himself as having been an ANC loyalist for many years since he joined politics, having been elected West Coast regional secretary for three terms.

“I was the only regional secretary who won by-elections from the DA’s ward since 1994, and I was also the only provincial secretary who let the ANC win a by-election in Bonnievale.

“And for many years, this (ANC) was the only party that I have served for 34 years, and I have never had any ambitions for the DA,” he said. 

Delport said he stuck with the ANC even when the Patriotic Alliance had offered him a position because of his capacity to lead rural communities. 

“They have lost capable leaders in the Western Cape. They have been putting together a task team, whose members have lost a provincial conference against us.

“Those people were never elected in any conference as branches had no interest in electing them, and therefore they had to form a task team through Luthuli House to get leadership positions, and if you look at the composition of the PTT, only 15% is coloured while the rest are blacks in the Western Cape,” he said.

He singled out PTT co-ordinator Thandi Manikivana, who contested the provincial deputy chairperson position and lost to Davids, as an example of people who, through the PTT, found their way back to the PTT.   

Manikivana was the convenor of the PTT established before the 2023 conference. 

Delport, who would be the DA’s elections co-ordinator, said the ANC’s loss of votes in the general elections was because the elections took place while the PEC was still working on rebuilding the lower structures.

He said Luthuli House, “not us”, was responsible for the ANC’s 10% drop in the elections. 

“There was no ANC structure on the ground when we were elected, a year before the national and provincial elections. 

“We did not have proper infrastructure and financial support promised to us by the headquarters (Luthuli House).

“They also delayed implementing the recommendation to nominate Khalid Sayed as the premier candidate.” 

He said now that they are with the DA, they would now work on dwindling the ANC support. 

ANC national spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri accused Delport of having a narrow ideological posture, “which sought to divide our people based on apartheid classification”.

“His departure is a confirmation that those who hold these kinds of tendencies in the movement will not survive an ANC that is renewed.

“The renewal of our movement is a deliberate act to cleanse it of opportunism, self-interest, and political convenience,” said Bhengu-Motsiri.

She said Delport was not aligned to the ANC’s mission to unite all South Africans of all racial groups behind one vision of a non-racial, non-sexist, democratic, and prosperous.

“His self-ejection validates that the ANC is on the right path; a path that prizes principle over position, and loyalty to the people over privilege loyalty,” she said.

Political analyst Thabani Khumalo said the ANC shot itself in the foot by disbanding the elected leadership, which he described as the head office interfering with the functioning structure. 

“It is definitely going to affect them (ANC) during the local government elections. The ANC in the next elections will continue to decline, and I don’t know how it is going to get a good strategy because things are getting worse and worse.

“Forget about the ANC in the Western Cape if the ANC is losing support in other provinces,” said Khumalo.

Another analyst, Professor Bheki Mngomezulu, said it matters for the ANC to lose four leaders in the Western Cape, “where the ANC has not been doing well for years”. 

“The question is how many more will cross the floor before the local government and the general elections,” said Mngomezulu. 

bongani.hans@inl.co.za    

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