New political party Building A Cohesive Society in South African (BACS) on Thursday announced its Nelson Mandela Bay mayoral candidate as Keith Potgieter.
Last month BACS was registered with the Independent Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) as an official political party.
Lynda Odendaal resigned as Cope MP in July 2009 and joined the African National Congress (ANC) in March 2010. Odendaal previously said that she had severed ties with the ANC because the ruling party’s leadership was “putting its interests ahead of those of South Africans”.
Speaking to the African News Agency (ANA), Odendaal said that BACS was not born out of anger, but rather with the aim to serve communities.
At a press conference held in Uitenhage on Thursday, Odendaal announced Potgieter as the metro’s mayoral candidate and said that he was the best fit based on him being grounded within the community.
Dubbed by BACS as a family man, 47-year old Potgieter formerly served in the South African Police Force for 23 years. According to the party, in 1984 he was a youth member of the United Democratic Front and then moved to the ANC in 1988 where he was a political activist until 1996.
Potgieter described himself as a people’s person and said the political culture was in his system.
He further highlighted that in the last 10 years the metro had gone through four mayors, four municipal managers and not a single appointed executive director.
“All these factors have contributed that puts this municipality in disarray. A metro with a police force which could not be established, that’s one concern. The IPTS system that does not get off the ground is also a failure. Failed service delivery, in all areas we find it.
“BACS is here to stand up to the challenge,” said Potgieter.
Asked around the opposition members who have since migrated into the party’s fold, Odendaal said that BACS was open to all South Africans and whoever was aboard was adding value.
“BACS is open to all South Africans, we have former leaders from the EFF nationally. Our deputy chairperson is Sibu Jantjies who was very involved in ground mobilisation in the Soweto region for the EFF. We have our youth leader at national level who was also with the EFF. Our national spokesperson, is a former long standing member of the DA, Chris Kope.
“We have seen a keen interest from across the spectrum. You see with other parties they are still fairly unstructured on the ground, everybody is making a noise at the moment. I think the key thing for us is that whoever comes on board is adding value,” said Odendaal.
-African News Agency (ANA)
