Roll-back of DA will be unstoppable, says leader of the NNP

By Herald Correspondents and Sapa

Cape Town – THE NNP and ANC claimed another four Western Cape municipalities yesterday, bringing to seven the total they have taken over.

NNP leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk said the “roll-back” of the DA was “picking up pace and building an unstoppable momentum”.

He said the coalition had gained control of the Boland district, Witzenberg (which includes Tulbagh), the Garden Route/Klein Karoo district and Swellendam municipalities.

The two parties have already claimed Cape Town, Drakenstein (which centres on Paarl) and Oudtshoorn.

Northern Cape NNP spokesman Kennett Sinclair said all four DA-controlled municipalities in that province had fallen to the ANC/NNP coalition.

They were Renosterberg, Kareeberg and Ubuntu in the Bo-Karoo region, and Hoogland in the north-west.

Mr Van Schalkwyk said all seven directly elected DA councillors in the Boland had pledged allegiance to the NNP, including the deputy mayor and speaker.

In Witzenberg, seven of the nine DA councillors had joined the NNP, again including the deputy mayor and speaker.

This had shifted the balance of power in the council – formerly governed in tandem by the ANC and the DA.

The DA had also lost its grip on the Garden Route/Klein Karoo district municipality with the defection of four councillors to the NNP.

Among them was the mayor, Andy Lamont, who was also current president of the Western Cape Local Government Association, and his deputy.

In Swellendam, the balance of power had also shifted to the coalition. There are 20 councillors there, and up to now they have been split evenly between the DA and ANC.

DA provincial chairman Theuns Botha said yesterday morning that 285 of the 356 DA councillors in the Western Cape remained loyal to the party. He said the DA expected to keep control of the municipalities of George, Langeberg, Mossel Bay, Knysna, Swartland, Bergriver, West Coast District, Breede River/Winelands, Cape Agulhas and Prince Albert.

The NNP’s rivals said it appeared to have taken its eye off the political scoreboard.

In a terse assessment of the second day of defections, Afrikaner Unity Movement leader Cassie Aucamp said NNP joy was “misplaced”, and warned that the political scoreboard told a different story.

This was one of “disintegration of the NNP and of severe losses”.

The NNP had succeeded in retaining only 20 per cent of the councillors who had represented the party as loyal party supporters less than two years ago.

“It is expected that the figure will be less than 50 per cent at the end of the window period,” he said.

DA Chief Whip Douglas Gibson made a similar prediction earlier in the day, adding that unless the NNP could get all 612 formerly NNP-aligned DA councillors to join its ranks over the next 14 days, it would emerge from the cross-over exercise in deficit.

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance – a registered political party since 1999 – has threatened to rain on the NNP/ANC’s parade in Cape Town.

GLA spokesman David Baxter said nine councillors – three each from the NNP, the DA and the ANC – would announce their defection to the GLA tomorrow.

Yesterday afternoon, DA leader Tony Leon reiterated his call for an election in Cape Town. Mr Leon told a crowd in Bishop Lavis that the NNP and ANC had stolen votes and he promised the DA would stick by “its people”.

� Editorial comment Page 6

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