It is time to deal with real issues

Johannesburg, 3 February 2014:  Agang SA announces today that the party will be contesting the 2014 elections as an independent party, with Dr Ramphele as our Presidential Candidate.

According to Dr Ramphele, "In hindsight, in our urgency to seize the opportunity presented last week, both parties rushed into the agreement. We wanted to present a government-in-waiting to the citizens of our country who are suffering under this government's corruption, and its refusal to properly deal with the myriad of issues that prevent us from realizing our potential."

"However, the overwhelmingly positive reaction from citizens that followed the announcement affirms to us that we are on the right path," she says.

Ramphele says that the reaction to the announcement shows that South Africans are ready to move beyond the politics of race and to build something new to challenge President Zuma's African National Congress.

Ramphele says, "It was always my understanding that the Democratic Alliance and Agang SA would jointly appoint a technical committee to deal with a range of issues including party membership, and how the two organisations would ultimately work together, and that it would report back to outline the way ahead so that the strengths of both parties could be maximized and leveraged."

"In the past week though, a constant stream of announcements that pre-empted the work of the committee began to appear in the media and quickly, the matter of my membership of the `Democratic Alliance became divisive and the focal point of media coverage. This detracted from the vision we shared, where South Africans would be presented with a formation that transcended political parties and instead provided them with a new vision of how to break the mould of race-based politics that advantage only the African National Congress," says Ramphele.

"We are certain that the committee would have been able to harness our famous national ability to overcome any problems put before us and that it would have been perfectly able to resolve all the technical matters that arise from the announcement. Sadly, the committee was never given the opportunity to do its work. We must also accept that there are members of both parties who were unhappy at the announcement," says Ramphele.

"Agang SA is determined to not get stuck in the inappropriate detail of who said what and when, and the series of statements that have appeared in the media that are detracting from this rare opportunity for a national conversation about how to build something new for the South African people. Our country needs us to overcome obstacles such as these, and we will continue to seek partners who share our objective of rescuing our beloved country from partisanship, division, and self-interest at the expense of the vulnerable and marginalised," she says.

Ramphele adds, the real issues South Africa face are a slowing economy, and inability to provide jobs, rampant corruption, a failure to protect the lives of women and children, a public service that is an extension of the governing party, an incomplete reconciliation, and social, economic and ongoing political transformation. Our country, she says, does not need politicians who keep us hostage from moving forward, and who are determined to maintain a political status quo that does not deal with real issues.

"Even as we declare our withdrawal from talks with the Democratic Alliance, we remain committed to working together for change with anyone who wishes to put the country ahead of narrow interests. Then we will topple this government which has forgotten that it should serves the interests of the people of this country; not their own," says Ramphele.

Statement issued by Mamphela Ramphele, Agang SA leader, February 3 2014

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