The Ses’khona People’s Rights Movement is looking for a new political home after walking out of the ANC.
The boisterous civil organisation yesterday cut ties with the African National Congress, and said they would not be endorsing the party in the upcoming municipal elections.
Highly placed sources told the Daily Voice that the Ses’khona leadership have been in talks with the Democratic Alliance to join the official opposition party.
However, neither would confirm this yesterday.
The split from the ruling party comes after disputes over the ANC’s ward councillor candidates list.
On Tuesday night, about 500 ANC members in Kuyasa, Khayelitsha left the party to join the DA over the same issue.
Yesterday police were called to the ruling party’s headquarters at Sahara House in the CBD after angry members from Ward 40 in Gugulethu arrived to protest.
ANC spokesperson Jabu Mfusi said they tried to address the crowds but had to call cops when the group broke an iron gate.
Around the same time, Ses’khona in Khayelitsha told the media they’d made a mistake by endorsing the ANC, who failed to honour its pledge to provide services to the poor.
The organisation said in a statement: “The ANC used us to campaign for it in the last national elections and thereafter we were thrown out of the door ruthlessly.”
And it seems the leadership is tearing itself apart about who to join now.
While leader Andile Lili rejected a DA union, Loyiso Nkohla said they were keeping their options open.
Lili, who is a member of the ANC Provincial Executive Committee and a ward councillor candidate, says: “We’ll never join the DA, the DA is an evil organisation that only looks after the interests of white people.”
But Nkohla appears to be open to an alliance with any political party, including the EFF and DA.
“If [the DA] puts anything on the table for our people, maybe we’ll ask our people to vote for them,” he says.
However, he said there was still time for the ANC to come to the party.
“If the ANC does not correct this [candidate list] we are prepared to leave, we are giving them until Monday and we will announce whether we will join, the DA or EFF.”
But ANC spokesman Mfusi says they will not be held ransom by Ses’khona.
“This period of choosing candidates to be councillors is always a challenging one, ward candidates are chosen by ANC branches and communities and no one can change that for whatever expedience. No one is entitled to positions in the ANC.
“It would be incorrect for any partner of the ANC to always seek to throw their toys on the floor whenever they do not get their way.”