What is the Patriotic Alliance?
The
Patriotic Alliance (PA) is a South African political party, formed in November 2013 by, among others, businessman
Gayton McKenzie[1], and by socialite
Kenny Kunene, a former English teacher turned businessman.
[1][2][3][4]
The party at its announcement stated that it intended to contest the 2014 national and provincial elections in South Africa, with a particular focus on the
Western Cape province, although it would also attempt to have a particular presence in the
Free State,
Gauteng,
Northern Cape and
North West. On March 12, 2013 the party paid deposit fees to the
Independent Electoral Commission to contest nationally and in four provinces on May 7, 2014.
[5] On its official website
[6] and elsewhere,
[7] the party has described itself as a credible alternative
[8] to both the
Democratic Alliance (DA), which is the ruling party in the Western Cape, and the
African National Congress, which governs the rest of the country. These parties have each, in turn, dismissed the PA as a credible threat and have said that in their view the party would disappear from the political landscape and not make a "significant contribution to the political discourse", which had proven to be the case with "smaller parties" in South Africa's past.
The bulk of the party's support is to be found among the
coloured communities of the Gauteng Province, although the party has stated that it is not a coloureds-only party and will canvass for support among all voters.
[15][16] In interviews, representatives have stated that the party has its roots in the coloured community and will therefore be putting political issues that affect the coloured community on the agenda. The party states that, in its opinion, no other party is catering directly for the needs of so-called "coloured voters"7
(from Wikipedia)