Patriotic Alliance (PA) leader Gayton McKenzie has implored white South Africans to steer clear of voting for the Democratic Alliance, saying a vote for the DA, was a vote for the African National Congress.
He has urged them to vote instead for the ActionSA or the Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus), and has suggested the parties were better placed to form a grand coalition with his PA.
This comes amid speculation that the DA and the ANC had apparently agreed to work together in an alleged super coalition going into the 2024 general elections.
The DA has denied this.
The Moonshot Pact — a formation of the DA, ActionSA, FF Plus, Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), the United Independent Movement (UIM), Independent South African National Civic Organisation (Isanco) and the Spectrum National Party (SNP) — is expected to start the two-day National Convention from Wednesday, in Kempton Park.
ActionSA’s national chairperson Michael Beaumont recently told Sunday Times that there were tensions as the DA seemed to be cozying up to the idea of possibly abandoning the pact and working with the ANC next year.
The DA has reportedly refused to sign a document prohibiting it from working with the ANC.
“It’s deeply concerning that the approach we’re getting is that they (the DA) can’t rule (working with the ANC) out altogether and all they can do is commit that they will stay loyal to the pact as long as the pact can achieve a majority,” he was quoted as saying.
McKenzie, who was speaking to BizNews in a podcast this week, said the DA’s federal council chairperson Helen Zille was “taking a big gamble with the future of this country” by working with the ANC.
“The DA has been criticising the ANC for 30 years and now they want to marry them.
“What Helen Zille doesn't understand, is that there is no good ANC or bad ANC,” he said.
McKenzie said the DA, in lobbying the PA to join the Moonshot Pact, said they should sign a document saying they would not work with the ANC, but they were refusing to do the same.
“For us, we have been clear, I have no preference for the DA or the ANC. The DA proposed that we must sign not to work with the ANC, but the DA is not signing the document,” he said.
“Do you understand racism, that white superiority complex? We will not agree to that,” he said.
McKenzie said he believed the DA and the ANC had already made a deal. He dared the DA to call a summit where it would sign a document confirming it would not work with the ANC, and that the PA would only sign once the DA had signed first.
“The people, white people in particular, must know that they must not vote for the DA, the PA. They must choose between ActionSA and the FF Plus, I am saying that as the leader of the PA, because a vote for the DA is a vote for the ANC,” McKenzie said.
“If you are going to vote for the PA, we are not clear who we are going to form a coalition with, and we are being honest about it, so you are still risking with your vote with the PA.
“By the DA, you are not risking, you are voting for the ANC,” he said.
McKenzie said he was telling people “the truth” as the PA could enter into a power sharing agreement with the ANC and was convinced the DA would too, but he said the ActionSA and FF+ were clear on their stance that they would not work with the ANC.
The FF+’s Corné Mulder told Eyewitness News ahead of the Moonshot Pact: "We can’t be exclusive, we have to be inclusive.
“If political parties share the same values and share the same principles and are prepared to come out on the side of parties undertaking not to go with the ANC, then that should be considered."
McKenzie said the PA was willing to go into a pact with ActionSA and the FF+.
He said the EFF remained a wild card, but also claimed so-called black parties were in discussions to form a black pact ahead of the elections. He said the PA had been invited, but declined the invitation.
Meanwhile, McKenzie said some of their non-negotiables included bringing back the death penalty, mass deportation of illegal immigrants and bringing God back into the Constitution.
He also slammed the singing of kill the boer, kill the farmer, saying there was no place for the struggle song in the new South Africa.
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