Durban — Despite its confidence of having substantial supporters, including blacks, the DA in KwaZulu-Natal has admitted that it has lost hope of winning the general elections on its own, and said it was now relying on its partnership with the IFP to unseat the ANC.
The admission came from the party’s provincial leader, Francois Rodgers, at a media breakfast, titled “Rescue KwaZulu-Natal”, in Durban on Friday.
“We are not a party that makes empty promises, we will never win KwaZulu-Natal as the DA.
“We are working on building a relationship with the Inkatha Freedom Party with the possibility to control the government of KwaZulu-Natal. As the DA, and with the IFP, we can get over 50% and govern without any other party,” he said.
Despite having lost influential black leaders such as Mbali Ntuli, Zwakele Mncwango, Sizwe Mchunu and Lindiwe Mazibuko who apparently attracted black voters to the party, Rodgers said his party’s support among blacks had still grown substantially.
He added that the DA would not enter into a coalition with the Umkhonto Wesizwe (MK) Party, ANC or EFF.
His issue with MK was that it had made former president Jacob Zuma its election campaign face.
Zuma is currently fighting legal battles and was also an ex-convict after he served jail time for contempt of the Constitutional Court by refusing to appear before the state capture commission.
During the 2021 state of the province address, Rodgers caused a stir by snubbing Zuma’s gesture to shake hands with him.
“He came to me (to shake hands) and I said you are the architect of our misery. I won’t shake your hand because I don’t shake criminal’s hand,” he said.
He said it was not worth it to work with the MK when Zuma was part of the challenges facing the country.
“Zuma was the president of the country. He did not arrest the challenges with Eskom, he did not stop state capture, he did not deal with corruption and in fact he compounded the problems,” Rodgers said.
He said the DA in the province was not worried about MK, which he said was likely to only affect the ANC’s support base.
Rodgers said he understood the formation of the MK to be out of settling scores with the ANC.
“If you think the MK and ANC are going to work together in the current format, they won’t. If the MK does well and the ANC needs their support, Zuma will have demands, which would be a presidential pardon.”
When approached for reaction, MK spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela said: “President Zuma does not and will not respond to a political novice, the people will respond to this racist party.
“The people know that the MK Party will liberate them from this WMC (white monopoly capital) economic stronghold that continues to marginalise them.
“The DA knows nothing about the struggles of our people.”
Sunday Tribune