Johannesburg – Patriotic Alliance (PA) President Gayton McKenzie has announced that Liam Jacobs crossed the floor from the Democratic Alliance (DA) to join his party.
McKenzie, who is also Sport, Arts and Culture Minister said on Saturday, 14 June 25, that 24-year-old Jacobs from the Northern Cape was one of South Africa’s brightest rising stars in national politics.
He, however, said Jacobs had been “weaponised by the DA” against the PA over the past three years.
McKenzie stated that this “cynical strategy” had not worked.
He said the DA was terrified of the growing realisation among coloured voters that it has been the “biggest beneficiaries of the love, support and faith of the so-called ‘coloured vote’ but they have not returned this love”.
Welcoming the former DA MP, PA Leader McKenzie said: “I have always told Liam that he has a bright future in politics and that I am proud of him, despite what he was being used for.
“I knew that one day his eyes would open, I just didn’t think it would be this soon, or this sudden.
“Our hearts are full of joy. We will always stand with Liam, no matter what anyone might insult him with now. I
“look forward to the journey of growing the next generation of leaders, like him, in the PA, because this party is not for me or any of us who started the PA.”
McKenzie added: “We have always said that the PA belongs to our children, and Liam will be part of that next generation that carries the PA beyond us once we have packed away our suits.
“The PA must – and will – endure even when I am being lowered into the ground in a coffin draped in PA colours.
“The future is bright, and it is green.”
In Jacobs’ own words: “I have come home to the PA because what Gayton said hit me hard this week after our Portfolio Committee meeting. I knew I was being used.
“A big thank you to President McKenzie and all the Patriots who have accepted me with open arms and love.
“Wherever the President wants me to be, whatever work he has for me, I am ready.
“I have been promised nothing, except the chance to be part of the fastest-growing party in South Africa, and to make a contribution to fighting for the people, instead of fighting the people who have been fighting for young people like me.
“I looked into what the PA is, what it stands for, and the family that it is.
“I feel genuinely loved and welcomed here, despite what I’ve said and done in the past.
“When the President announced me, I felt a calm and happiness unlike anything I’ve ever known. I could not stop smiling. I am finally home.
“We have to keep holding those in power to account, but this obsession with a leader like Gayton McKenzie is about clinging to power in the Western Cape; not about fixing South Africa’s problems.
“I could not be part of that for another day.”
