De Lille's ID celebrates one year
2004-03-27 14:15
Cape Town - Addressing supporters on the first anniversary of the Independent Democrats political party, leader Patricia de Lille said in 12 months her party had grown from a small office and one telephone line to one with 60 000 members and offices in all nine provinces.
"This first year has confirmed the urgent need in South Africa for a new, fresh political party," she said in a speech prepared for delivery at the Good Hope Centre in Cape Town on Saturday.
De Lille described the gestation and development of the party as a "long, hard journey".
Turning to real politics, De Lille said a recent journey to the Northern Cape, which turned sour when a dust-up occurred between supporters of the ID and the African National Congress, showed that the ANC was "running scared" in that province.
"That province is in a complete mess due to ANC corruption and favouring of their friends. ID will give them a good hiding on April 14 in the Northern Cape. We are ready to govern in the Northern Cape and our energies are directed at that goal," she said.
On Western Cape politics, which De Lille described as "nothing short of a political circus", she said that people were sick of being misled and lied to by politicians.
"One party is going to create three million jobs, another promises only a million," she said, saying her party would not make promises, but would ask voters to give the ID and opportunity to prove itself.
Urging prospective supporters to join, De Lille said the ID will be a voice for the voiceless and would never be afraid of the ruling party because they stood, not for the "majority truth or minority truth", but The truth.
Taking a swipe at other, more established opposition parties, De Lille, said: "You can't hide from the truth and South Africans will see through your dirty tricks... Our party is building bridges across communities, from the very rich to the very poor and across all the traditional social group divides."
She said her party did not just sit around and complain but actually worked to ensure every South African's Constitutional rights were realised.
- SAPA