DA's Western Cape caucus chair resigns from legislature
27 February 2017
Cape Town - The Democratic Alliance's caucus chairperson in the Western Cape, Rodney Lentit, has resigned from his post in the Western Cape legislature.
DA provincial spokesperson Anneke Scheepers confirmed the resignation with News24 on Monday, but said she did not have the formal reasons for his move just yet.
Lentit told News24 on Monday that his resignation was "straightforward".
He would remain a member of the party and continue to fight for the DA in the run-up to the 2019 general elections, he said.
Lentit follows Patricia de Lille as the second high-profile party member to recently resign from a post, although De Lille resigned last month from her party position, and not from her job as Cape Town mayor.
The Western Cape ANC, meanwhile, said Lentit was "forced to jump" after the party elected Bonginkosi Madikizela as its acting leader over the weekend.
The ANC claimed on Monday that Lentit and De Lille's resignations were part of "deep divisions and dissatisfaction" in the party that the coloured majority in the province was "being sidelined".
"The DA seems to be cracking up under all sorts of pressures and rumours of racist intolerance," ANC acting provincial leader Khaya Magaxa said on Monday.
"This is even supported by Madikizela, who now wants to 'unite' the DA and frantically denies the existence of race blocks or interests in his party."
A party that 'sees past colour'
Madikizela won an overwhelming victory at the party's provincial council in Worcester on Saturday, beating the four other candidates with 75% of the 142 delegate votes.
He told News24 after his victory that his win makd him proud to represent a party that "sees past colour".
"It has yet to sink in. But what is very clear to me is, I'm part of a party that truly embraces diversity. It is a party that is demonstrating it every day," he said.
The DA has been rocked in recent weeks by the fallout of fellow candidate and DA chief whip in Cape Town, Shaun August, being referred to the party's ethics committee along with De Lille and a party researcher for allegedly leaking party documents to the press.A researcher in De Lille's office, Josh Jordaan, resigned as a DA member and a member of its federal council last week following the reports, which alleged he had leaked the documents together with August.
