DA leader Helen Zille made the announcement “with very great pleasure and excitement,” at the Townhouse Hotel in Cape Town.
A joint technical committee would be established between the parties to manage and oversee the integration of Agang SA and its structures.
“I know Mamphela as a principled, fiercely determined person who loves her country very deeply and devotes her life to the cause of making our democracy work. I can think of no better person to be our presidential candidate in this crucial tipping-point election,” said Zille.
On Sunday 26 January, the Sunday Times reported on the possible merger of the two parties, however Agang SA dismissed the report as speculation.
Ramphele said, “This isn’t the time to talk about the ANC, the stolen money, the broken promises, the sliding rand, the lost jobs, the corruption, filthy hospitals, schools with no books and streets, homes and places of work that remain unsafe. We want to rather talk about tomorrow, the day that we begin anew to refresh the promise of 1994.”
Ramphele said some influential people within the ANC had reached out to them but were nervous. “Millions want to make a different choice in this election. They say enough is enough. Together we are greater than the sum of the parts,” she said.
Dr Ramphele also defended remarks she made about the DA in a recent biography in which she stated that her son said he would never vote for the DA. She said the DA referred to in the book was the traditional DA.
When Agang SA was launched in June 2013 in Pretoria, Dr Ramphele made a scathing attack on Jacob Zuma. While the DA welcomed the party to the political sphere but warned against splitting the electoral vote.
