Johannesburg - Minority parties are gearing up for next year with the formation of a super pact that will challenge the bigger parties in national elections.
The parties have embarked on conciliatory talks on a coalition of like-minded minority parties with various partnerships. The parties include COPE, UDM and the AIC.
The DA has embarked on a similar process called the Moonshot Pact, with other bigger parties being consulted.
The minorities have decided to consolidate themselves urgently in an attempt to have a voice in national and provincial politics.
They will be launching a “Super Pact Front” (SPF), which is a coalition pact with the motto “Release South Africa Campaign”.
“We are resolute in fighting to release South Africa from the grip of wrongly entitled retirement-age leaders, epidemic corruption, maladministration, the decay of the economy and infrastructure, the decay of the rule of law, social order and moral values,” the parties said.
The minority parties will be embarking on a strategy seminal to the concept of the United Democratic Front (UDF). The Super Pact will incorporate the voices of civil society, business and labour and youth movements.
“This Super Pact Front is in preparation for the 2024 national and provincial elections. We wish to send a clear message to the so-called ‘big parties’ that South Africa is a multiparty state and not a one-party dictatorship government of arrogant fat cats who have forgotten the ordinary people of South Africa. That time is over!” the parties said.
Among the key priorities for the pact’s formation is the regaining of South Africans’ confidence in African leadership and government. The parties also said they were interested in a new covenant for rebuilding South Africa by aligning the strengths and manifestos of the various parties to attend to the basic and aspirational needs of all South Africans.
“We also want to redraft a practical programme of action to address the declining economic state, the decaying state infrastructure, the devastated essential public services and the dire living and working conditions of our people,” they said.
The minority parties said they had only the best to offer South Africa. The pact is expected to offer excellence in leadership and consolidate minority voices.
“The tragedy of so-called big parties is that to their own detriment, they have abused the people of South Africa so much that they managed in just less than 30 years to squander their liberation Struggle and gain trust due to their superior attitudes of arrogance, misgovernment, maladministration and endemic corruption in all spheres of government,” the parties said.
The Star