Umamah Bakharia 

The DA has lost another high-ranking member after the resignation of MP Patricia Kopane after 19 years. She was DA leader in the Free State from 2012 to 2020.

Speaking to Radio Islam, Kopane says even though she takes her time served with gratitude, it was time she left the party as they were longer serving the interest of the people of South Africa.

“I realised that the DA today is no longer the DA I believed would be the political pinnacle that can change the lives of South African people,” she says. Adding that the return of Helen Zille and the leadership of John Steenhuisen had changed the focus of the party’s stance on economic empowerment.

“The majority people of South Africa are the black people and the DA were on the right direction but the regrouping of the white people in the DA wanting to change the clause, not creating within the political space to discuss things of economic empowerment [was] really on of the issues,” says Kopane.

She says she will continue her political career in assisting South Africans to vote for an honest party.