Leaders from the DA, IFP, Freedom Front Plus, ActionSA, United Independent Movement, Spectrum National Party and Independent South African National Civic Organisation (Isanco) are currently participating in a national convention in Kempton Park, Ekurhuleni.
The party’s leaders say the aim of the convention is to negotiate a pre-election agreement ahead of the 2024 General National Elections should ANC drop below 50%.
IFP leader Velenkosi Hlabisa, during the media briefing held in Emperors Palace ahead of the talks said the voters should choose a better government to better their lives.
“The IFP is here today because we believe that there is still hope for our country, and for the people of South Africa. However, if we want things in our country to change, we cannot continue to walk the same path that we have been walking. If we want change, we will have to do things differently,” he said.
Hlabisa said the convention is about South Africa and its people.
“This is not an anti-ruling party club. Our reason for convening here is much more important. We do not hate the ANC. We hate what they have done to South Africa.
“After years of struggle, in 1994, the people of South Africa stood in long queues to cast their votes. I was one of them.
“We were full of hope that our country was entering a new phase of freedom and prosperity. Unfortunately, all our hopes are now lost.
“As the IFP, we are here to determine how best we could serve South Africa together, how to bring about much-needed change, and how to make sure that the issues that are important to our constituencies are on the negotiating table.”
UIM leader Neil de Beer said this was not targeting fellow oppositions.
“We are not here to pick up a fight and make any party enemy number one, we are here to make the public number one. Our diversity makes us a great nation. It is in this diversity that we will find unity,” he said.
Independent convenor of the convention professor William Gumede announced the name the parties came up with as Multiparty Charter for South Africa.
Gumede said there were robust discussions in coming up with the name.
“The best I can say is a vision was accepted or was agreed on. I used the word coupled together because it was a robust engagement to get to that vision that has been achieved. It is quite an important job that will hold the group together as one of the pillars of a long term coalition,” he said.
The place where the negotiations are being held is a historic one as the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (Codesa) meeting also happened there.
Codesa negotiations laid the foundation for South Africa’s transition to democracy.
The two day event is set to end on Thursday.
