DA Debacle – ACDP Speaks Out

Kevin Southgate MPL – ACDP

Friday, 19 October 2001


Kevin Southgate, member of the Western Cape Provincial Legislature for the African Christian Democratic Party, today said that the internal struggles within the Democratic Alliance posed a threat to the functioning of the Cape Town Unicity.

Mr Southgate criticized the handling of the current situation within the alliance, and said, “The current fiasco has revealed the absence of any form of morality or integrity within the two parties. It is clear that the alliance of the Democratic Party and the New National Party misses one of the most essential ingredients in a marriage, that being trust and honesty.”

According to Mr Southgate, the public slandering of personalities does little to inspire public confidence and only serves to further polarise communities, as well as factions within the Alliance.

He said, “It is scandalous for the DA to abuse its authority as well as ratepayers money to fund what is clearly an internal power struggle. To claim that they are ‘for all the people’, falls short of hypocrisy as there is no doubt that the battle lines are drawn based on the ideology of liberalism on the one hand and humanism on the other hand. The current battle within the DA has nothing to do with politics or service delivery to the people, but rather, with the power and control of the DA.

Mr Southgate also came out in strong criticism of the Democratic Alliance’s recent ‘coconut’ advertisement, in which coloured people were likened to coconuts. He said, “the DA’s ‘coconut’ advertisement clearly portrays the Alliance’s insensitivity to its constituents. All they did was to use the coloured people as pawns in an attempt to avoid negative publicity surrounding the unholy alliance.”

In conclusion Mr Southgate reiterated the African Christian Democratic Party’s support of a system of co-operative governance. “Our democracy is too young to allow any one party complete control; both the ANC and the DA have proved that ”, he said.



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For more information please call Kevin Southgate MPL at 082 7881181 or ACDP Media Liaison Liza Bloemetje at 082 478 1037