Johannesburg - A prominent ANC member in eThekwini, Visvan Reddy, has challenged the party to terminate his party membership as he insists on calling for voters to vote for the DA instead of his party.
Reddy, the former ANC PR councillor and current party member in Chatsworth, south of Durban, had used social media to attack the ANC, the party he joined 16 years ago after leaving the DA.
Although he insisted that he was still the ANC member, he accused the party of being behind fuel increase.
Reddy said as the national convenor of People Against Petrol and Paraffin Price Increases (Pappi) he articulate the view of his lobby group.
“One of the decisions that Pappi has taken is to call for its members not to support the ANC in the election.
“If they want to fire me they must fire me as I would not fire myself. They must fire me if they think what I am saying is wrong,” he said.
Reddy recently posted a video of himself attacking the ANC for petrol increase. He said his previous video on the similar “went viral with over 400 000 hits”. He said the ANC government had taken many by surprise to announce that it would increase petrol on the eve of the elections.
“The Department of Energy announced that petrol will go up by 54 cents in May.
“This is the arrogant lot who don’t carry damn up about us the voters,” he said.
He said Pappi would be having a biggest peaceful protest on May 8.
“We have a secret weapon and it is called our vote, we will use it as our silent protest against the ridiculous fuel prices that we are paying.
“Pappi has decided to call on all our members and supporters to vote for the DA as the only party that would take up our fight to parliament,” he said.
He said Pappi had lobbied various political parties to support its action against petrol increase.
“One of the parties that has shown the most interest in our campaign is the DA.
“I am also speaking up against the fact that the ANC has refused to engage Pappi while other parties have done so,” he said.
He said he left the DA 16 years ago to join the ANC because they DA was a “very, very racist party”.
“DA is no longer a racist party. The DA has transformed itself, I must be quite honest with you. The DA is not the same party that I joined 16 years ago,” he said.
DA provincial leader Zwakele Mncwango said Reddy was among many people who belonged to other parties but were campaigning for the DA.
“He believes that DA is the only party which is big enough to remove the ANC from power,” said Mncwango.
ANC provincial spokesperson Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu said the provincial leadership had consulted the regional leadership to check if Reddy was still a card carrying member.
“The moment you start campaigning and working for the opposition party you then cease to be a member of the ANC.
“The fact that Visvan Reddy has decided to actively campaign for the opposition is an indication that he is no longer a member of the ANC,” said Simelane-Zulu.
ANC regional spokesperson confirmed that Reddy was the ANC members in Ward 77, Chatsworth.