Three ANC councillors have defected to Gayton McKenzie’s PA.
Grant Pitcher/Gallo Images
- Three ANC councillors have defected to Gayton McKenzie’s PA.
- One of the three councillors led a failed motion of no confidence in Buffalo City Metro Mayor Princess Faku last year.
- The move comes as the PA is making inroads in Eastern Cape municipalities west of the Fish River.
Three ANC councillors quit the ANC in dramatic fashion on Wednesday night and defected to the Patriotic Alliance (PA).
PA president Gayton McKenzie announced on Facebook that the three councillors – Graeme Lottering, Pearl Hanse and Kuhle Ciliza – were joining his party.
One of the three councillors who left the ANC, Lottering, led a failed motion of no confidence in Faku last year, prompting the mayor to recall him. Lottering was the MMC for sport, recreation and community development.
However, ANC provincial secretary Lulama Ngcukayitobi ordered Faku to reverse the decision.
Although she did so, she removed Lottering during a reshuffle this year.
Ngcukayitobi and Faku are part of opposing factions in the party’s battle for the soul of the Eastern Cape.
In his resignation letter, Lottering said:
I never imagined that the day would come where I would part ways with the organisation that shaped my political life.
Lottering, who joined the ANC through the UDF in the early 1990s, said he had been mistreated and, therefore, “deeply disillusioned”.
“The interference of [the] regional leadership in branch general meetings undermined branch democracy and processes,” Lottering wrote.
He added that he was angered by his experience as an ANC deployee in the metro, where he was removed as an MMC and replaced “in a manner that disregarded both merit and dignity, was deeply hurtful and humiliating”.
We are the fastest growing political party in SA, recycling the same accusation you flighted last year and the year before will not stop us. The communities most affected by the scourge of drugs are overwhelmingly voting for us simply because of the work we do fighting drugs. pic.twitter.com/fHbweocU9o
— Gayton McKenzie (@GaytonMcK) March 30, 2026
“There were two occasions where the regional chairperson, in her capacity as the mayor of Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality, attempted to remove me as MMC, with no intervention from the branch itself,” Lottering said.
“I have reached a point where I must choose personal dignity and self-respect.
“I wish to inform you, comrade secretary [Amanda Mfazwe], and the members of the branch, that I have found a new political home where my views are respected.”
READ | Buffalo City Mayor Faku forced to reinstate MMC after ANC reprimand
The party Lottering was referring to was the PA, McKenzie said on Wednesday night.
Speaking on a Facebook Live video, a platform McKenzie uses for party communication, he announced that the three leaders had decided to join the PA.
Lottering, Hanse and Ciliza were present at the time and confirmed the move.
The PA’s Tiphany Harmse, who was also present, said it was the “breakthrough” the party had “been looking for”.
The move comes at a time when the PA has started making inroads in Eastern Cape municipalities west of the Fish River.
In November, the PA snatched Ward 9 in Kou-Kamma from the ANC when Michael Hartz secured 44% of the vote.
In March, the PA’s Nathan Jacobs continued on that trajectory, sweeping 40.19% of the vote (1 000 votes) in the Dr Beyers Naudé Municipality’s Ward 7.
