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3 weeks ago
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The DA welcomed new members in Khayelitsha.
- The DA has welcomed nearly 100 new members in Khayelitsha, citing ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa’s praise of DA-led municipalities as a boost for the party.
- New DA members in Khayelitsha say service delivery failures pushed them to leave the ANC.
- While the DA celebrates growth, ANC chairperson Gwede Mantashe has hit back, accusing the DA of neglecting townships in the Western Cape.
The DA says ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa’s praise of DA-led municipalities has boosted its support base, with nearly 100 new members welcomed in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, over the weekend.
Embraced by the DA Metro region and Khayelitsha 2 constituency leadership, the new members cited service delivery as their primary motivation for crossing the floor.
“I was an ANC member and decided to quit and join the DA,” said Phumlani Dlongwana from Makhaza. “From the [Jacob] Zuma years up until now, the ANC has been on a self-destructive route and can never be rescued.”
Another new DA member, Zanele Mvumvu, said ANC councillors are invisible when the community needs them. “For years, people of Khayelitsha trusted the ANC, but what have they done for us? Nothing. The DA is trying to reverse the damage.”
DA Cape Metro chairperson JP Smith said momentum was growing, as “DA good governance attracts more and more recognition, not least because President Ramaphosa endorsed it last week”.
“Our track record speaks volumes,” he said. “We care, we deliver and we work for you – and we will not stop.”
DA Cape Metro chairperson JP Smith said the momentum is growing as they welcomed new members.
Ramaphosa told ANC councillors last week that they should learn from DA-led municipalities such as Cape Town and Stellenbosch.
“We need to be moving up the ladder of being good at what we do. We cannot forever stay at the bottom,” he said.
But ANC national chairperson Gwede Mantashe, speaking in Cape Town this past weekend, pushed back: “The DA is doing well in white suburbs. It is neglecting townships. That is the myth of their way of governing.”
READ | Dear Comrade President: Rebuke is OK but don’t promote DA, say ANC councillors
Mantashe was in the Western Cape over the weekend to launch a campaign in the Dullah Omar region titled “Tackling the High Cost of Living”.
The campaign follows the ANC national leadership’s announcement of plans to restructure its Western Cape branches after a high-stakes intervention in the province ahead of the 2026 municipal elections.
