Hon Speaker, the DA campaign to take over Gauteng was dealt a major blow by recent developments, where there was an exodus of councillors from the DA in Gauteng who defected to the ANC. Four councillors have already resigned to join the ANC and the other four are in the process of joining the ANC. Of the four DA councillors who have already defected, the two from Ekurhuleni were made known on February 11, the day of the DA's march to Luthuli House headquarters, and the others were announced on 27 February. [Interjections.] [Applause.]
Order, hon members! Order!
As if that were not punishment enough for the DA, four more DA councillors in Tshwane are set to defect to the ANC, to take the tally up to eight. According to the Tshwane ANC Deputy Chairperson, Mapiti Matsena, the four councillors will leave the DA in pairs during the next two council sittings. It is going to be two per council meeting until the elections. [Interjections.]
Order! Order!
According to some of these councillors, like Toni Molefe, who was the Deputy Chief Whip of the council in Johannesburg, and Cllr Sipho Masigo, who was the deputy chairperson of the DA in Gauteng and is now in the ANC in the City of Johannesburg, black people in the DA were not given room to grow. They painted a picture of internal policy confusion, especially on the issue of black economic empowerment. [Interjections.] The two defectors, Councillors Sam Moimane and Sello Maila, argued that when they joined the DA they found symptoms of apartheid in that organisation. [Applause.] [Interjections.] They also added that colour remained very important in the DA and what the DA did at the national level was not what was happening at ground level; hence they rented Agang to have a presidential candidate. [Time expired.] [Applause.]