Tshwane's Hannes Coetzee ditches the DA for ActionSA
ActionSA on Thursday afternoon announced Hannes Coetzee has jumped ship and will be contesting the May by-elections under the green banner.
CAPE TOWN - Yet another Democratic Alliance (DA) leader has left the party, this time at local level in Tshwane.
ActionSA on Thursday afternoon announced Hannes Coetzee has jumped ship and will be contesting the May by-elections under the green banner.
#Ward96ByElection
Herman Mashaba (@HermanMashaba) March 17, 2022
We @Action4SA are delighted to welcome Hannes Coetzee as our Ward Candidate for the upcoming By-election on 4 May 2022 pic.twitter.com/Wlcqc09RYG
The announcement comes as yet another prominent DA politician, Mbali Ntuli, announced her exit from the party on Thursday morning.
ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba said the DA should expect to lose more of its leaders after Bongani Baloyi and Athol Trollip left the main opposition to join his party.
Mashaba said Coetzee, who served as a DA councillor in ward 96 since 2011, was simply unhappy with the party’s approach to governance, which failed to address the Hammanskraal water crisis, unreliable electricity supply and dilapidated roads.
“He did very well even in the recent elections, and we were surprised that three months into the new session, he resigned. And I engaged him only to find that he was very unhappy with serving the DA.”
Mashaba said the DA could expect to lose more of its members over its lack of ambition.
“The DA, as far as I am concerned, is not interested in being the government in this country, they are happy to be an opposition and people are looking for a political party that has the commitment and ability to unseat the ANC.”
He said while he had not approached Ntuli, his party’s door was open to any leader who was committed to toppling the governing ANC.
