DA’s Joburg caucus leader defects to Mashaba’s new movement

The man who was tapped to replace former Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba after he stepped down from his position late last year has left the DA to join Mashaba’s new movement, The People’s Dialogue.

The Star reports that DA Johannesburg regional chairperson and caucus leader Funzela Ngobeni is one of two former DA members to make the shift. Paul Boughey, who quit as the party’s CEO in 2019, is the other.

Boughey was implicated in a high-level panel report following the party’s dismal showing at the polls and resigned shortly thereafter.

“He will be leading our essential campaign to develop wall-to-wall structures on the ground in the communities, that will carry our offer to the front doors of South Africans,” said Mashaba in a statement released on Monday.

“In my time as mayor of Johannesburg, Funzi served as the MMC for finance and leader of executive business. He proved himself as a strong and skilled leader, committed to doing what was right for the people of Johannesburg.”

It was during his time as finance MMC that the DA named Ngobeni as its preferred candidate for mayor – a position he lost to Geoff Makhubo who went on to appoint an ANC cadre as finance MMC.

Mashaba then hailed Ngobeni’s previous experience in the private sector adding that he has experience and perspective into the work of growing the economy and creating jobs as a result of it.

“This is what I mean when I say that politicians who join us will have to pass through the eye of the proverbial needle and prove they can be servants of the people and not servants of the party.

Ngobeni said he was looking forward to working with Mashaba to build an initiative, describing it as “something we all need to embrace”.

“I will be on the ground, building the People’s Dialogue, which looks like it will evolve into a political party,” he added.

Boughey, on the other hand, brings with him “immense strategic experience to the work of establishing a new political party”.

“They share my dedication to building a non-racial future for South Africa, through an absolute commitment to redress the legacy of our unjust past. Critically, they are devoted to building a new alternative that can actually unseat the ANC and improve the lives of the people of South Africa.”

He concluded by announcing that he would reveal new members in the coming weeks.

(Compiled by Kaunda Selisho, additional reporting News24 Wire)

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