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ActionSA is not surprised by credible reports that the DA is considering promoting Cape Town councillor Abdulkader “AK” Elyas to either Parliament or the Western Cape Legislature, despite guilty findings relating to the falsification of his qualifications and his dishonesty.

Having presented himself as a medical doctor, going so far as to wear medical scrubs and claim that he started university at the age of 15, an internal DA disciplinary record seen by ActionSA found DA Cllr Elyas guilty of charges relating to the falsification of his qualifications. Despite these findings, he remains a sitting councillor and, according to credible information received, is now being considered for promotion to serve as a lawmaker in South Africa.

The DA, and particularly Cilliers Brink, who sought to mudsling ActionSA over a matter that had nothing to do with us, cannot lecture other political parties about ethics, integrity and clean governance while applying an entirely different and hypocritical standard to its own representatives.

ActionSA calls on the DA to come clean about the reported promotion of Cllr Elyas to Parliament or the Western Cape Provincial Legislature and explain how such a deployment is not an insult to the standards that ought to govern the calibre of representatives that political parties send to represent citizens.

Public representatives entrusted with making and shaping the laws of our country must be held to the highest standards of honesty and integrity. 

While the DA may be comfortable retaining an individual against whom such serious disciplinary findings have been made as a councillor, South Africans cannot afford to have dishonest individuals who lack integrity entrusted with shaping the laws that govern our country.

Issued by ActionSA Western Cape Chairperson Dereleen James MP