In a move that signals shifting political sands in the Western Cape, Neville Delport, a former senior leader of the ANC in the province, has publicly crossed the floor to join the Democratic Alliance. The defection, announced by DA Federal Council Chairperson Helen Zille, is being framed as a significant coup for the official opposition and a stark warning to the struggling ANC.
Delport did not mince his words about his former home, suggesting his move is just the beginning of a wider exodus.
“This is Just the Beginning”
Standing alongside Zille, Delport declared the end of a chapter in his political life. “I’m very excited to be part of the DA,” he stated, thanking those who developed him in the ANC before firmly closing that door. He then issued a bold prediction: “This is just the beginning of ANC councillors, especially in rural regions, who will defect to the DA.”
His decision, he explained, was strategic. After examining his options, he concluded that the DA’s record of “clean governance” and structured municipal management was superior. He was particularly scathing of the Patriotic Alliance (PA), another party vying for support, which he dismissed as all noise and no substance. “If you join the PA, you’re just a number,” he claimed, arguing that the DA offered a tangible plan for service delivery where the PA did not.
The ANC’s Fierce Clap Back
The ANC, however, was quick to reframe Delport’s departure not as a loss, but as a necessary purge. In a sharp retort, the party characterized Delport as an ideological misfit, claiming his removal was part of its “renewal process.”
They accused him of holding a “regressive and narrow ideological posture, which sought to divide our people on the basis of apartheid classification.” This suggests the party leadership viewed his focus on Coloured representation as divisive rather than inclusive.
A Crisis of Representation
At the heart of Delport’s defection is a powerful claim: that the ANC has sidelined Coloured leaders. He argued that after a conference was won on a “ticket for change and Coloured leadership,” the winners were replaced by those who had lost, mainly from metropolitan areas.
“The leadership does not represent the will of Coloured communities,” Delport asserted, claiming he and others decided to find a “new political home” as a collective. This points to a deep-seated feeling of marginalization within a key ANC constituency in the province.
The defection comes just days after the ANC’s national leadership disbanded the party’s troubled Western Cape provincial executive committee, highlighting the intense internal turmoil. For the DA, Delport’s arrival is a trophy and a potential gateway to making inroads in rural and coloured communities. For the ANC, it is a public relations disaster and a sign of potentially deeper fractures to come.
