Port Elizabeth - The DA has welcomed into its fold 60 ANC members from ward 22 in Port Elizabeth in the hotly-contested Nelson Mandela Bay metro.
The members were welcomed by DA leader Mmusi Maimane after his address at the Lillian Ngoyi Sports Centre in Port Elizabeth on Sunday. The members, mostly young people, took off their yellow ANC t-shirts and donned the DA’s blue ones, amid song and dance.
Maimane said the new recruits understood that the struggle continued under the DA.
His provincial leader and mayoral candidate Athol Trollip said young people were the future of the country.
Trollip said the party stood a real chance of winning ward 22 as people had had enough of the ruling party in the metro.
“We have welcomed over 60 ANC members from ward 22 into the DA. We didn’t even invite the media,” said the mayoral hopeful.
Former ANC member Fundile Sputa said he was a loyal member of the ANC for a long time and had joined the DA due to the ruling party’s failure to honour its promises on job creation.
Maimane said Trollip would create more job opportunities in the metro, and called on him to go advance the people’s struggles so that they knew what true freedom looked like.
“We put good people in government. Opportunities will be opened, jobs will come,” he said.
Maimane called on the DA candidates to fight for the people once they had been voted in, adding: “The struggle continues until our people know what job creation is.”
He again criticised President Jacob Zuma for calling on people to vote along racial lines, saying Nelson Mandela stood for non-racialism, and that the DA was the only party to take the country in the direction envisioned by the renowned statesman.
Maimane told the cheering crowd that he had a picture of Mandela’s prison cell in his office.
The ANC’s regional task team convenor Beza Ntshona said when Mandela was still alive, “he never mentioned Mmusi Maimane as a friend, but warned us about stooges”.
“Did Mmusi send a message of congratulations to Mandela when he became President of this country? Did Mmusi send Mandela a speedy recovery card? Did Mmusi send a wreath when Mandela was buried?” asked Ntshona.