WATCH: Agang leader twerks for votes as the party launches its manifesto

Agang launched its manifesto on Saturday morning, with party leader Andries Tloulamma responding to calls from the crowd for him to dance by “twerking”.

According to Wikipedia: “Twerking is a type of dance originating as part of the bounce music scene of New Orleans in the late 1980s. Individually-performed, chiefly but not exclusively by women, dancers move throwing or thrusting their hips back or shaking their buttocks, often in a low squatting stance”.

Tloulamma didn’t just show off his dance moves at the manifesto launch, also using it as an opportunity to slam corruption, saying that anyone who votes for the ANC would be “doing themselves an injustice”. He also hit out at the EFF, calling them “VBS looters”, and at violence against women and abusive men.

The launch appeared to take some South Africans by surprise, with one user expressing shock that the party “still exists”.

The party was formed by Dr Mamphela Ramphele in 2013, who resigned as its leader in 2014.

Members of the Agang SA faction that supported Ramphele resigned from the party shortly afterwards, following a Western Cape High Court ruling which confirmed Agang SA MP Mike Tshisonga as the party’s new acting president.

In a statement issued by the pro-Ramphele faction, in their capacity as individual members, they also encouraged other like-minded members of the party to follow their lead and resign.

The resigning members encouraged their like-minded compatriots, if they resigned, to join them in a new civic initiative, the details of which would be announced in due course.

They said what contributed to this decision was the party finding itself in serious financial problems following the May 7 general election which saw them garner two parliamentary seats.

(Compiled by Daniel Friedman. Background reporting by Sapa)

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