Quinton Mtyala
Political Writer
BARELY two months after joining the ACDP, its provincial leadership has chosen Ferlon Christians, 45, to do battle against Patricia de Lille and possibly Tony Ehrenreich for Cape Town’s mayoral chain.
Christians got his start in politics with the New National Party in 1993 and was on the party’s list in the 1994 and 1999 elections. For a while he flirted with the ANC, following in the footsteps of his political mentor, Patrick McKenzie, but he then joined the ID after the 2004 elections.
ACDP provincial leader Grant Haskin said
that Christian’s chequered political history would, in fact, give him an insight into South Africa’s politics.
Introduced to the media yesterday, Christians spoke about the plans the ACDP had for gaining a foothold in the City of Cape Town and possibly holding the balance of power should the outcome be inconclusive.
“People are sick and tired of the DA and the ANC. I believe that we will take over the city,” said Christians.
He had been nominated by the party’s structures and interviewed by the provincial executive, after which he was chosen as its mayoral candidate. Haskin said the decision to go with Christians had been unanimous.
Pauline Cupido, the party’s provincial chairwoman, said the growth of the ACDP would see people from other parties joining it. She said Christians would be “a force to be reckoned with” ahead of the May 18 polls. Cupido has also been chosen as mayoral candidate, for Mossel Bay.
Christians promised that the ACDP would deliver where the ANC had failed in its promise of “a better life for all”.
The ACDP is hoping to increase its representation in the City of Cape Town, which stands at seven councillors, a number which in March 2006 helped the DA lead a coalition of several smaller parties. But five years later, there’s not much love lost between the two parties.
Haskin was booted from his position as deputy mayor after the 2009 elections, while other coalition partners like the Freedom Front Plus and the Universal Party suffered a similar fate in the city’s mayoral committee.
Haskin said the party would decide on coalitions only once the votes have been counted, but ruled out the DA for its “character assassination” of coalition partners.
“The DA… wants full and unfettered power,” he said.
He promised that should the ACDP come to power, there would be no increase in the rates tax.