Balindlela takes Nemato by storm
ROB KNOWLES
| PEOPLE POWER: Former Eastern Cape premier, Nosimo Balindlela (centre), who recently joined the DA, visited Nemato on Tuesday evening and addressed almost 500 people at Jauka Hall. With her are two new DA recruits, Vuyiswa Florence Tsitsi (left) and Whitey Nobele, who had come to listen to what the popular politician had to tell them. See story on page 15 Picture ROB KNOWLES |
THERE was an unprecedented show of support for the DA in Nemato on Tuesday night when former Eastern Cape premier Nosimo Balindlela visited the township for the launch of two new branches.
"Even Tata Nelson Mandela would be voting DA today,” Balindlela told the nearly 500-strong crowd in Jauka Hall.
The diminutive politician’s arrival invoked mass cheering, ululating and chanting as she took the microphone and delivered her address.
"I am reminded of the great Helen Suzman,” she began, "who has been largely overlooked for the part she played in changing the South African political structure. Hers was a voice for change, and it is time for yet another change.
"We have waited for 20 years for these changes to happen but, today, we are no better off than we were in 1994.”
Balindlela resigned from her position as premier of the Eastern Cape in July 2008 following pressure from the National Executive Committee of the ANC, of which she was a member. She subsequently resigned from "active" politics but retained her membership of the ANC.
In November of that year Balindlela resigned from the ANC to join the Congress of the People and in November 2012 she joined the DA, her second change of political party.
"(Western Cape premier) Helen Zille asked me what position I wanted in the DA. I told her I did not want a position. I just want to make a difference,” she said.
Worried about reports of intimidation against those who have opted to join the DA, Balindlela said that should not happen in a democratic country.
"I am proud to be a member of the DA. I chose to join the DA by a conscious decision. No one recruited me. The DA does not recruit members, and you have to ask to be a member,” she said.
