Barely days after the ANC announced it has entered into an agreement with the DA in a Government of National Unity (GNU), some ANC members are resigning from the party.
This was as some members felt betrayed by the ANC’s decision to involve the DA in the GNU.
Members of the ANC felt that there was nothing common between the DA and the ANC.
One member from the Liliesleaf branch, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Star on Monday that many of their members felt betrayed as they believed the party had better options than opting for the DA.
“At our last meeting, we discussed and suggested possible political parties that we can enter into GNU with. In our suggestion, we deliberately ruled out the DA and the MK Party as they wanted to dictate to us who should be our president.
“I can tell you for free the decision by the leadership has irked majority of our members in the branch and it not just in the branch but across branches in the province,” the member said.
He also confirmed that his former branch chairperson Benson Motsumi has tendered his resignation upon hearing the announcement that the party would form GNU with the DA.
He said, he understood where Motsumi was coming from as they were the ones doing door to door and engaged ordinary citizens.
“How are we going to defend this to our constituents and voters? No matter how hard we try to convince people that it’s in the interests of our country.
“How then am I going to respond to the fact that DA wants to do away with minimum wages, that is not enough by the way? How am I going to defend that as an ANC member who also doesn’t believe in this marriage?”
In his resignation letter making the rounds on social media, Motsumi described the DA as a long-standing enemy of the masses of the black people.
“Difficult as it is given that I have been a member of the ANC for 31 years. However, given the circumstance in which we find ourselves in, I have taken a decision to resign from the ANC and the branch executive committee (BEC) as my conscience will not allow me to continue to practise my activism in a political party which sold out its voters to white racists who hate black people with their all… When it had viable or acceptable options to explore as submitted by our BEC on behalf of the branch following our BGM.
“When I campaigned and worked for the ANC sometime lonely, I was under the impression that I was doing so for the purposes of changing the lives of our ordinary people and for the continuation of the NDR which would ultimately benefit our people. Little did I know that I was doing so to give power to our oppressors,” his letter read.
Attempts to get hold of Motsumi were unsuccessful at the time of publication.
ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri did not respond to text messages nor answered her phone.
The Star