The CEO of the Development Impact Fund has labelled recent talk around the devolution of the Western Cape as bizarre and childish.
Last week, the formation of the Western Cape Devolution Working Group, which includes among others DA Federal Council chairperson Helen Zille, the ACDP, Freedom Front Plus, the Cape Independence Party, AfriForum, the Cape Independence Advocacy Group (CIAG) and the Action Society.
The group aims to protect the rights of residents of the Western Cape province and to improve their circumstances through the devolution of powers and functions away from the national government, according to Zille.
Development Impact Fund CEO Lorenzo Davids said the calls for devolution were childish and bizarre.
Speaking to CapeTalk on Tuesday, Davids questioned the intentions of the group who want to see a breakaway of the Western Cape from South Africa.
Davids said it was worrying that the lobby group consisted of largely conservative and right-wing leaning persons.
“How is it possible that the devolution working group, of which I am in full support of the notion, concept, and policies of devolution, consists of only those who are not only political parties including the DA and the ACDP are fairly secessionist types of people?
“There are no moderate or left-leaning voices within the devolution group. This is a scam of note and it is almost a visible platform to advance ideas,” he said.
Davids said the actions of the group were distasteful and driven by a hate for the government.
“How is it that we still tolerate that in 2022? We assemble a group under the DA that is opposing the people who hate this democracy, now you can hate the party that governs the country and you go to the polls, vote them out of power,” he said.
Meanwhile, constitutional expert Professor Pierre de Vos has ruled out any chances of a breakaway of the Western Cape.
“Within the context of the South African Constitution it would not make any sense, because members of different provinces have voted for something else and the Western Cape is not unified,” he said.
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