DA welcomes new members

Cape Town  – The DA announced on Thursday that a ward councillor in Gugulethu, Cape Town, had left the ANC to become a candidate for the opposition ahead of the August 3 elections.

Welcoming Mzwakhe Nqavashe from Cape Town Metro's ward 40 to the fold, the party said he would be a candidate for the local government elections.

Nqavashe was not immediately available to comment, but the ANC brushed off the announcement.

"The ANC is not surprised by the defection of Councillor Nqavashe to the Democratic Alliance because for a while now we have expressed a concern, especially when the 'DA's pseudo-councillor rating tool' put Nqavashe at the top of their list of best performing councillors, showering him with awards, over and against a pool of well performing ANC Councillors and in contrast with our view," said ANC provincial secretary, Faiez Jacobs, in a statement.

According to news reports, during his time as a councillor, Nqavashe came under fire from residents several times. Petrol bomb attack He was accused of hiring people close to him during a protest which saw refuse thrown on to a major freeway, GroundUp reported.

In 2015 he explained that people were upset with who was hired for a new cleaning contract and were unhappy with the city's policy of hiring people on a database aimed at avoiding nepotism and abuse.

Independent Online reported that his home was burnt down in April 2014 in a petrol bomb attack when he was branch secretary for the ANC.

In Thursday's statement, Jacobs said the ANC was not surprised by the move because he was a close ally of suspended Councillor Siseko Mbandezi who also decided to join the DA instead of going through a disciplinary process.

The DA also officially welcomed Lindela Tshwete, son of late ANC veteran Steve Tshwete, who joined in January, and Neo Tshengu, a bishop and founder of the Small Medium Business Council.

This article first appeared on News24 – see here.