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Former ANC caucus leader in the City of Cape Town, Banele Majingo has defected to the DA. (Banele Majingo/Facebook)
- ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula says the roof is not falling for the ANC in Western Cape; "it fell a long time ago".
- Mbalula has also responded to Banele Majingo's defection to the DA, saying the party was not perturbed.
- A meeting of the ANC national executive committee is under way at the Birchwood Hotel in Boksburg.
A day after the ANC's caucus leader in the City of Cape Town, Banele Majingo, defected to the DA at a dramatic council meeting on Thursday, ANC secretary Fikile Mbalula downplayed the matter.
Mbalula said while the ANC would offer support and strengthen the party in the Western Cape, it would not intervene.
He said the ANC was working with the party leadership in the Western Cape to regain control of the province.
The ANC has been eyeing the City of Cape Town for years now and believes it can regain control of the City in the 2026 local government elections.
Majingo rocked the City of Cape Town council chamber when the DA announced through a statement that he would be joining the DA's caucus.
Majingo was meant to lead the charge for a motion of no confidence against Speaker Felicity Purchase of the DA on Thursday. But the motion lapsed following Majingo's switch to that party.
READ | 'Sellout': Opposition parties seethe after ANC leader in Cape Town ditches party, joins DA
Mbalula has downplayed the matter.
"We don't comment on people leaving our party," he said. "They've got their own reasons, which they have articulated."
He added:
All we can say is that they've decided to betray the cause. They could not run the race to the [end], they have decided to betray the cause for reasons better known to [themselves], especially in the Western Cape.
He added that anyone in the Western Cape who said they were leaving the ANC because the DA was better and was serving the poor was not only delusional, but disingenuous as well.
"It is a reflection on them, because they are living on untruths and that will haunt them.
"So they will be haunted even by their conscience going forward, but we are not perturbed about it. Everyone has the right to belong to any political party of their choice, and those are the dictates of our political and democratic system," Mbalula said.
Majingo's defection was not the first instance in which the ANC in the Western Cape appeared to be weak and politically on the backfoot in the province.
Asked why the ANC had not intervened and "reinforced" the structure, Mbalula said:
The ANC does not just intervene; by instinct, we support. We will be in the Western Cape to look at the state of organisation and what support we need to [offer].
Mbalula was speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the ANC's national executive committee meeting in Birchwood, Boksburg.
"The centre does hold. Should the need arise that we need to support the province to beef it up one way or the other, it will arise from engagement with the province.
"The roof is not falling, it has fallen a long time ago in the Western Cape when we lost to the DA. What is before us is a battle to win back the Western Cape, and for us that's what is important," Mbalula said.
