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The Democratic Alliance (DA) plans to lay a fresh round of bribery and corruption charges against senior ANC Western Cape officials.

This comes after the latest attempt by the ANC to bribe DA councillors as part of Project Reclaim, exposed by the DA last year.

This Saturday, a DA delegation intercepted two of its Theewaterskloof councillors in the lobby of a Cape Town Protea Hotel. The councillors had allegedly been staying there on the ANC’s expense.

The councillors claim that they were lured to the hotel on false pretences, although the actual intent of the ANC was for the meeting to be about bribery negotiations. We have strong reason to believe that senior ANC provincial officials were directly involved in these negotiations.

We have dispatched a team to the Overberg today to collect affidavits and further information to support the case. We are laying charges this week and want the SAPS investigation to start immediately.

Project Reclaim is a coordinated ANC attempt to seize power in eight Western Cape councils by attempting to bribe DA councillors to defect to the ANC in the hope of forcing by-elections.

The DA exposed the ANC’s plan in November last year after a six-month investigation into bribery attempts by ANC officials. Our findings revealed a morally and politically bankrupt ANC that, having lost the hearts and minds of the people of the Western Cape, is resorting to criminality to seize power.

A dossier containing a confidential ANC hitlist of which councillors to target, affidavits and other incriminating evidence was handed to senior police officials in Cape Town.

The police have apparently refused to investigate these corruption charges laid by the DA against a number of ANC officials for their involvement in Project Reclaim.

Given that the DA has now exposed the ANC’s latest bribery attempt while it was taking place, we expect the SAPS to take the charges relating to Project Reclaim seriously.

I will write to the Provincial Police Commissioner to demand that the first set of charges laid by the DA in November last year are investigated along with the new charges.

The DA remains focused on delivery for all the people of the Western Cape. Any attempts to divert us from our mandate will be dealt with decisively.