DA recruits former WC ANC secretary Neville Delport

The African National Congress (ANC)'s reconfiguration in the Western Cape has claimed its first high-profile defection. 

The party’s former provincial secretary, Neville Delport, on Wednesday joined the Democratic Alliance (DA). 

He and three others, two of them former ANC municipal councillors, were welcomed to the party on Wednesday by federal council chairperson, Helen Zille, and DA Western Cape leader Tertuis Simmers.

Delport was elected to the ANC's provincial leadership in the Western Cape in 2023 after the party had been under an interim leadership for four years.

But after just two years, the ANC's national executive once again disbanded the province’s elected leadership last week. 

Delport, who led the party’s Rural for Change movement ahead of last year’s elections, believes the so-called reconfiguration is factional politics at play.

"This is just the beginning of ANC councillors, especially in rural regions, that will defect to the DA, as we develop a strategy in the Western Cape to make sure the DA remains the political party in charge of this province."

Zille said that Delport’s job would be to mobilise support for the DA, particularly in rural municipalities.

Two by-elections will now also have to take place after the defection of two former ANC ward councillors.

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