FORMER DA member and Midvaal mayor Bongani Baloyi said he had no sympathy for black people who remained in the DA because they could “all see what’s going on.”
Baloyi said that the DA did not care about black people and that the party had no national interest except for ensuring their power over the Western Cape.
“I have no sympathy because were are speaking about adults who have exercised their freedom of association who have bought into a vision that they don’t recognise has changed, and I can make a bold statement and say their focus is only the Western Cape,” Baloyi said.
Baloyi said the black people and the progressive people who remained in the DA were fooling themselves, and were choosing to remain in their circumstances.
“Had this been mayor Geordin Hil- Lewis under the circumstances, I am telling you they would have given the IFP that position to stabilise the city. I have no sympathies for people who chose not to see what’s going on,” Baloyi said.
He said Phalatse’s mistake was arguing with top leaders in the DA who had a “birth certificate” of the DA.
“One of Mpho Phalatse’s biggest mistakes was to argue with people who have a birth certificate in the DA. You cannot be arguing with your Mike Waters, Tony Leon’s and Helen Zille’s and contradict them in public and think that you will last there forever,” Baloyi said.
Baloyi’s comments come to the backdrop of Lindiwe Mazibuko’s tweet where she said she had reliable information that Phalatse was excluded from key decision making concerning Johannesburg.
Baloyi was not the only Action SA member that took a jab at the DA. Action SA caucus leader Fundi Ngobeni told reporters that while the party was faced with the moment of losing the City of Johannesburg to the ANC, decisions that affected the coalition were made in Cape Town.
The Star understands that Action SA and the Patriotic Alliance (PA) had begged the DA to give the speaker position to the IFP, but the after a few calls to Cape Town, the DA leaders in Johannesburg were told to forget it. This saw the PA betraying the coalition and voting with the opposition.
Ngobeni said the reason Action SA wanted an IFP speaker was because the IFP was disproportionately represented in the coalition. Helen Zille and other federal leaders wanted Alex Christians, even though the DA had the mayor and chief whip position already.
“The former mayor stepped out to request the national leadership of the DA to allow them to make this important decision that would have saved the coalition at that moment. Unfortunately, mayor Phalatse was not listened to, and the national leadership of the DA stuck to their position and told all of us to go to hell,” Ngobeni said.
Ngobeni said the DA wanted to run the City of Johannesburg from Cape Town. He said Action SA had asked for a deputy mayor in the City of Johannesburg, but the DA had dragged the matter for over nine months.
Despite this, Ngobeni said Action SA had accepted its reality and was willing to do a proper hand over to the new MMCs.
DA MP Cilliers Brink said the party was focused on getting the City of Johannesburg back through a court challenge. He said there were no tensions between Phalatse and the DA leaders.