By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen has urged the people of South Africa to rally behind the multiparty national convention to remove the ANC from power and replace it with a new Pact government composed of like-minded opposition parties.
Steenhuisen addressed the nation on Monday ahead of the multiparty national convention that will take place on Wednesday and Thursday in Kempton Park, Ekurhuleni.
Parties that will participate in the convention are the DA, IFP, Freedom Front Plus (FF+), ActionSA, United Independent Movement (UIM), as well as the Spectrum National Party (SNP).
Steenhuisen said it will take place at the same venue where the historic Convention for a Democratic South Africa (Codesa) negotiations took place to replace the apartheid government regime.
He took a swipe at “naysayers” who believe opposition parties “are too egotistical” and would never be able to put their differences aside. “The naysayers were wrong,” said Steenhuisen.
“The Moonshot Pact has captured the public imagination like no other opposition project has ever done in the history of our democracy. We dare not mess it up now. That is why the DA is deeply committed to ensuring that the pact emerges from the national convention with a meaningful agreement on how we will work together to rescue South Africa.
“I have said from the very start that this must not just be an anti-ANC project. It must be a pro-South African project that tables real solutions to the urgent problems our country faces.
“The parties involved in this process have already made some progress towards a minimum joint program of action.
“From the DA’s side, I can assure the people of South Africa that we will continue to act at the convention in the same good faith and spirit of cooperation that has gotten us this far,” said Steenhuisen.
Renowned professor, William Gumede, has been appointed to chair the convention independently.
Meanwhile the Independent Civic Organisation of South Africa (Isanco), a splinter from the ANC-aligned South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco), was also nnounced as the seventh political party to take part in the upcoming national convention.
Isanco was formed after it broke away from the ANC-aligned Sanco in 2021 due to the failure to address corruption within the ruling alliance.
The party subsequently contested the 2021 local government elections, winning 14 council seats in areas previously dominated by the ANC.