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MAMPHELA Ramphele, former partner of renowned anti-apartheid campaigner Steve Biko, decided yesterday not to run for the opposition Democratic Alliance in South Africa’s elections this year, only a week after saying she would.
Ramphele had agreed to seek the presidency for the opposition Democratic Alliance, which is trying to throw off perceptions it represents the interests of the white minority, against the ruling African National Congress (ANC).
Her change of heart frustrates the party’s drive to woo black voters from President Jacob Zuma’s ANC, which has been in power since the end of white-minority rule in 1994.
“The time for this was not right,” she told a news conference, saying she had rushed into the decision to join the Democratic Alliance and would stay with her own Agang party.
Agang has gained little traction in its one-year existence despite growing voter disaffection with the ANC.
Ramphele’s defection to the Democratic Alliance had led some to accuse the physician and author of opportunism, and had threatened her standing among the black majority as the partner of Biko, who was beaten to death by apartheid police in 1977.
Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille denounced her old friend for reneging on the election deal so swiftly. “Dr Ramphele has demonstrated once and for all that she cannot be trusted to see any project through to its conclusion,” she said.
The ANC’s support has waned amid corruption scandals and charges it has failed to rescue millions of blacks from poverty, but it won nearly two-thirds of the vote in the last election in 2009 and its overall majority this year is not in question.
No date has been set for the parliamentary polls, which are expected to be held by May.
Meanwhile, DA leader Helen Zille said on Sunday Agang SA leader Mamphela Ramphele has proven she cannot be trusted to see a project to its conclusion,that’s after Ramphele reneged on an agreement to become the DA’s presidential candidate.
“We have been through many false starts,” she said in a statement.
“When Dr Ramphele insisted on Monday that we go public on Tuesday to announce her acceptance of our offer of the DA’s presidential candidacy, we accepted that she had finally made up her mind.”
Zille said Ramphele had reneged on the agreement to be the Democratic Alliance’s presidential candidate at a meeting on Sunday despite the party negotiating in good faith.
Confusion arose on Friday over Ramphele’s joining the DA.
According to a joint statement issued by Ramphele and Zille on Friday, the Agang SA founder would be welcomed into the DA at a press conference in Johannesburg yesterday.
However, following the joint statement being issued, a message from Ramphele was uploaded onto Agang SA’s website.
“You may have by now seen ‘joint’ statements issued by the Democratic Alliance in which it is claimed that I will be accepting DA membership on Monday,” she said.
“This is not true. Nor did I agree to any such statement. It is Agang SA’s position that the technical committee must first complete its work. I am leader of Agang SA, and Agang SA will continue its work to restore the promise of our freedom.”
Zille on Sunday said Ramphele was playing a game of “cat and mouse” telling the media one thing, Agang supporters another thing and the DA another.
“It is not clear what her objective is, but whatever it is, it is not in the interests of the South African people,” she said.
“By going back on the deal . . . just five days after it was announced, Dr Ramphele has demonstrated —once and for all — that she cannot be trusted to see any project through to its conclusion.” — nytimes.com-Sapa.
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