Lungani Zungu
At least 30 former ANC members in KwaZulu-Natal, including long-time party member and councillor Rachel Sobbiah, have dumped the ruling party for the Democratic Alliance.
Sobbiah is the most prominent figure among the former ANC members welcomed by DA KZN leader Francois Rodgers in Durban on Wednesday.
Sobbiah was elected to the ANC Youth League National Executive Committee (NEC) in 2011 and later served as an ANC councillor in Msunduzi.
She dropped the ANC because the party had veered away from its mandate to change the plight of poor South Africans, she said.
“I think the DA is the party that puts the interest of South Africans first. This is the reason I left the ANC and joined the DA.”
She said she was excited to be joining the DA.
“This is a new chapter for myself and my political career and my ambition to change the lives of South Africans,” she said.
All the former members came to the DA provincial office in Durban wearing ANC T-shirts. They later took off the T-shirts and donned DA party regalia.
Meanwhile, ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte announced that the party will contest elections in all 257 municipalities.
The party had initially failed to meet the deadline to submit its candidate list but then had another chance when the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) reopened the process.
