Port Elizabeth - Undoubtedly there will be a “few” voters who will go along with Patricia de Lille but the vast majority of Cape Town will stick with supporting the Democratic Alliance (DA).
That is according to Natasha Mazzone, a senior MP and party's deputy federal council chairwoman, who said she was unfazed by De Lille’s popularity as a seasoned politician and the fact that she claims parts of the Western Cape as strongholds.
Mazzone was in Port Elizabeth on Thursday to unveil the DA’s 2019 registration poster in the run-up to the national elections.
The former Cape Town mayor’s new political party, Good, claims it has already won the support of about 60,000 people across the country with a strong contingent coming from Gauteng.
According to reports, these are the people who have joined up through the party’s website and were captured on its database up to December 21.
De Lille resigned from the DA at the end of October last year after about 18 months of bitter fighting with the party leadership.
Mazzone, who was was accompanied by Eastern Cape leader Nqaba Bhanga at the Cleary Park taxi rank, was confident that the DA would do well because the party was consistent in “practising what we preach”.
The pair handed out pamphlets at a nearby shopping centre and encouraged residents to register to vote.
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) will hold a voter registration weekend over the 26th and 27th of January.
Speaking to the media, Mazzone said the DA acted against the “slightest hint of maladministration” and its leadership knew the party would take a reputational knock when they acted against De Lille.
“It was someone that was well known in the community, but we have proved to our voters that we practice what we preach [and] we mean what we say.
DA Eastern Cape premier candidate Nqaba Bhanga and MP Natasha Mazzone flight a 2019 election registration poster in Port Elizabeth on Thursday. Photo: Raahil Sain/ANA
"Undoubtedly there will be a few voters who go along with Patricia De Lille but the vast majority of Cape Townians and people in the Western Cape have seen the improvements there are when you live where the government is run by the DA. People are coming out in their numbers to ensure that the DA retains the Western Cape,” said Mazzone.
She said the DA flighted its registration poster in Port Elizabeth because the party believed residents legitimately wanted the DA to govern the city.
Mazzone said there were marked improvements under the DA administration and the city was taken from the DA in an undemocratic fashion.
Last year, the DA and its coalition partners wanted the court to review or declare unlawful the decisions taken at the August 27 council meeting which saw the ousting of Athol Trollip as mayor.
The DA subsequently lost the application with the court pointing to "flaws in the political decision making of the DA".