ANC 'colluded' with the DA

2009-01-09 22:39

Verashni Pillay

Cape Town - Senior ANC members colluded with the DA to oust former Western Cape Premier, Ebrahim Rasool, claimed a senior member of the ANC who defected to newly formed Congress of the People (Cope) on Friday.

Ntombomzi Macingwane, former whip in the Western Cape provincial legislature, made the allegations at a press briefing during a Cope public meeting in Khayelitsha.

"As a member of Parliament, I witnessed ANC members colluding with senior DA MPLs... leaking information to them," she said, after announcing her resignation from the ANC and the provincial legislature, and her support for Cope.

Rasool was asked to resign "in the interests of the ANC" in July last year.

'Not told'

"We were not told," Macingwane said of the decision to axe him. "We heard in Parliament... but by the looks of things the DA knew what was going to happen."

She said she saw senior ANC members SMSing DA members.

"For the last few years I've witnessed comrades I've fought alongside against apartheid turn on their fellow freedom fighters... and blacken the names of people who have done nothing wrong."

Macingwane is the latest in a string of people defecting to the new party, headed by former Minister of Defence, Mosiuoa Lekota.

Hundreds gathered at Mathew Goniwe High School in Khayelitsha to hear Cope second deputy president Lynda Odendaal give her maiden speech, and hear from other leaders including Macingwane.

"I have not been promised any position, I have just come voluntarily to work for the people of the Western Cape," she said.

"I could no longer in good conscience stay," said Macingwane, who said she was "haunted" by the things she had seen in the provincial legislature.

A Khayelitsha resident, Macingwane became an MPL in 1999, with Site C as her constituency.

Sidelined

She said in an interview earlier that she had been sidelined in the ANC and that the party was changing for the worse.

Nonetheless she thanked the ruling party for "skilling and empowering" her, in her 15 years of service.

Meanwhile supporters in the packed hall sang songs of support and cheered on Odendaal, who vowed to improve her Xhosa and to listen closely to people in the run up to the general elections.

- News24