Cape Town – Controversial Western Cape community leader Loyiso Nkohla on Thursday endorsed the province’s Democratic Alliance (DA), in principle joining some 500 former African National Congress (ANC) members who made the move.
The DA’s provincial leader and City of Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille commented: “Mr Nkohla has come to recognise the major progress the DA-run City of Cape Town has made in providing sanitation to poor communities across the City. His endorsement is a reflection of this”.
Read: Ses’khona cuts ties with ANC
Access to sanitation is a priority to the grassroots organisation to which Nkohla belongs, the Ses’khona People’s Rights Movement.
Previously, Nkohla taunted the DA-run City, involving himself in poo-throwing as protest against “pota pota” or portable toilets in informal settlements.
In 2013, Nkohla was expelled from the ANC for his involvement but was later reinstated and even made it into the ANC’s provincial executive committee in 2015.
More recently however, Ses’khona has expressed its grievances with the ANC which includes failure to deliver on alleged promises such as land for poor, black supporters.
Disgruntlement with the ANC – which Ses’khona has always endorsed – is also understood to be a result of the absence of Nkohla and Ses’khona leader Andile Lili’s names from the ANC’s candidates list.
Lili, however, has not endorsed the DA and was reportedly blindsided by Nkohla’s move.
Equally blindsided were some South Africans who expressed shock on social media, calling Nkohla a range of derogatory names such as “Judas Iscariot”, an “opportunist”, and likened him to Samuel L. Jackson’s character in Django.
Others, however, sympatished with Nkohla’s move: ?@KaPakade tweeted, “Maybe Loyiso Nkohla is just looking for anything else a lot less shittier and a tad bit more caring than the ANC, we’re at that point peeps!” while ?@The_Gcas commented, “I wouldn’t blame Loyiso Nkohla for joining the DA”.
Meanwhile, Nkohla – who remains at the mercy of the courts for his illegal protest activity – will not be able to join the DA as a member until his legal matters have been resolved.
The province’s ANC responded to Nkohla’s move as well as that of the 500 former members in Khayelitsha.
“Khayelitsha is black green and gold and has been so and will forever be so,” said media liaison Yonela Diko.
“To those who have decided to move to other colors, we know that in due time, you shall reawaken to the truth that you already know, that the DA has no other interests but to preserve the unjustified enrichments of the minority, using the votes of the majority.”
mDiko added that the ANC appreciated “the contribution Ses’khona makes to our organisation, particularly co-championing issues of sanitation and better services in poor communities”.
Commenting on Ses’khona’s dissatisfaction with the ANC’s candidates list, Diko said it must be made clear that all who join the ANC and who seek to lead are “all at the behest of our branches to deploy us where they think we can serve the organisation best”.
“We remain confident that ANC members that are also members of Ses’khona appreciate this and will continue to support the ANC and it’s pro-poor causes,” said Diko.
He added that the ANC’s doors would remain open.
African News Agency