No special treatment, says Herman Mashaba after former ANC MP Vytjie Mentor joins The People’s Dialogue

Former ANC MP Vytjie Mentor has joined The People’s Dialogue. File picture: Ayanda Ndamane/African News Agency (ANA)

Former ANC MP Vytjie Mentor has joined The People’s Dialogue. File picture: Ayanda Ndamane/African News Agency (ANA)

Published Jul 25, 2020

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Johannesburg - Former Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba says ex-ANC MP Vytjie Mentor, will despite her prominence be treated like any of his party’s 20 000 volunteers of The People’s Dialogue, which she recently joined.

Mashaba announced this week that the former public enterprises portfolio committee chairperson had joined the party, which he formed immediately after resigning from the DA.

“Anyone joining does not mean that automatically will get a position, including myself.

“Our public representatives are going to be elected by the people,” she said.

Mashaba also told the Independent Media on Saturday that the party would be officially launched virtually on August 29.

“Let’s say I have made myself available to be the mayoral candidate (for the local government elections), we will encourage other people as well to make themselves available. We will put to our members to decide who is the most suitable person that they feel comfortable with,” he said.

He described Mentor as being one of the few ANC MPs who were “brave enough to stand up and speak out against the state capture.”

He said in the fight against corruption, Mentor exposed herself to threats on her life.

“These are the kinds of people we want to have in the ranks of our new political party – truly dedicated South Africans dedicated to rooting out the looting in our government,” said Mashaba.

In a video footage in which she was introduced as the member of The People’s Dialogue, Mentor said: “This is the last chance to save South Africa and this is the last initiative that is able to bring people together from across the board to save our country because everything is going hayway [sic],” she said.

Mentor declined to answer questions from Independent Media.

Mashaba refused to be drawn into disclosing other prominent figures that had joined his party.

“For us it is not really about the big names. Yes big names like Vytjie we will announce because it is someone who is really well known and has experience, but at the end of the day she would be like everybody else.

“We are not going to refuse people who are not tainted, and we are not going to accept anyone who is tainted,” he said.

Political Bureau

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