This article may contain graphic and/or adult content unsuitable for minors and sensitive readers.
The Democratic Alliance in the Eastern Cape says its sending a strong signal that it wants to govern Nelson Mandela Bay after the 2016 local government elections.
The party announced onMonday that former COPE MP, Nqaba Bhanga, had joined the DA and he will also be a provincial candidate for parliament in the May general elections.
Bhanga will also lead a new DA constituency in Nelson Mandela Bay, known as the Ngqura Constituency.
Speaking to the media at Monday's announcement, Bhanga explained why, after leaving the ANC to join COPE, he now finds himself in the Democratic Alliance.
"The ruling government, the African National Congress, have (sic) left the project of the liberation of our people. Now individuals are stealing money from the national fiscus that is supposed to serve the poor of our people. Therefore, we cannot submit and surrender on the basis that we want to be associated with the struggle," he said.
"We are here, we were in the struggle ourselves. We are saying DA is a new party for South Africans to change the conditions in which our people find themselves under."
Meanwhile, DA provincial leader Atholl Trollip says with Bhanga on board and the establishment of a new constituency, they are sending a clear message about their intention to government Nelson Mandela Bay and by 2019, the Eastern Cape.
He says he's been given an area to work in that has traditionally been an ANC stronghold and they want to break that stranglehold.
"His got some really good activists that he's brought with him from Cope and we've got some good, strong DA activists that have been working there for a long time and we hope to make a big impact in that area from Wells Estate and Bluewater Bay right through Motherwell, Zwide, Kwamagxaki, Kwanoxolo and Zwide.
"It's a big area, its an ANC stronghold and we want to make that area blue," said Trollip.
