Cape Town - Agang SA leader Mamphela Ramphele would on Friday evening address Cape Town students in an event initially hosted by the DA Students Organisation (Daso) to welcome her as the DA's presidential candidate.
Daso branch leader for the University of the Western Cape, Abongile Mjokozeli, told Sapa they were still technically hosting Ramphele but only as an academic, and not as Agang SA's leader.
She was expected to deliver a lecture entitled “Education should not be a debt sentence”.
Mjokozeli said when a coalition was in sight for the two parties last week, Daso booked a venue at the university on Agang SA's behalf.
This was because Agang SA was still in the process of being officially recognised as a political party in the university's structure.
“Due to the developments in the past week, Agang persisted in having the event, (and) Daso had not cancelled it,” Mjokozeli said.
“As a result, Agang is footing the bill of the entire event.”
Around 50 students in green Agang SA shirts sang and stomped their feet as they made their way into the lecture venue.
Although there were no Agang posters on the wall, party members handed out free shirts to some of those attending. Agang banners were hung around the room.
No DA branding or people in DA shirts could be seen. There were several security guards outside the venue. Some guards were heard expressing concern at the presence of a few students in African National Congress shirts. The handful of students had come from a voter registration drive on the campus earlier in the day, attended by provincial ANC leader Marius Fransman.
Last week, Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille, flanked by Ramphele, announced that the Agang SA founder would be the DA's presidential candidate in this year's elections and that there were plans to merge the two parties.
However, confusion soon arose when a statement was put up on Agang SA's website that it was not true that Ramphele would be accepting a DA membership. On Sunday, the DA announced that Ramphele had gone back on the agreement to stand as the DA's presidential candidate.
Both Zille and Ramphele held separate press briefings on Monday to explain what happened. Ramphele said the decision was rushed into and the technical issues of a partnership were never ironed out.
Zille accusing Ramphele of playing cat and mouse games.
Sapa