DAgang. Still wondering what’s going on? It’s gotten messy. Really messy. And while things have always been quite messy over at the ANC, EFF, IFP, THE COLLECTIVE FOR DEMOCRACY and indeed the Patriotic Alliance, we wanted to round up how great our week has been so far. You know, for context. With all the ceremony, kissing and hugging witnessed at that DA-AgangSA press conference, nothing is clearer if not muddier than before. While over at Luthuli House, the ANC, seemingly finding the week stressful,  called a press conference to announce their party candidate list, then didn’t. They did thank us all for coming.

 We uncover the timeline of (potential) events that took place after Tuesday morning’s Agang-DA announcement with memes. Because we care.

Tuesday 28 January. Cape Town

Helen Zille releases a statement about a press conference of national importance at 9:30 AM on Tuesday 27 January 2014. Later announces that Dr Mamaphela Ramphele will become the DA’s presidential candidate for the upcoming 2014 elections. Boom.

Meanwhile at the Agang Offices….what we thought was happening….

…what was actually happening…..

…at Luthuli House….

and Twitter.

Keeping the trend of useless press conferences going, the ANC organised a presser to announce their candidate list for 2014. Then didn’t.

Shortly after it all went down, we asked some important questions about what this move would ACTUALLY mean for South Africa. It turns out some of our most burning questions were justified. At approximately 4:30 PM on the same day, rumours began to circulate that members of Agang SA had NO idea what to make of the move because Dr Ramphele had acted unanimously in announcing the “merger”. Awwww sh*t. Is it a merger? Is it a defection? No! It’s nothing at all!

The next morning, Agang SA (or what remained of it) scheduled a press conference where it was expected that they would announce Dr Ramphele’s expulsion from the party. Nope. Wrong again. Agang SA stood by it’s leader, claiming she was still their own “presidential candidate” and that Agang SA would continue to campaign as a stand-alone party. Boom.

So on Wednesday night, the good Dr Ramphele had an interview with News 24 to clear things up once and for all. When asked if she was the DA’s presidential candidate she replied, “I am the leader of Agang SA.” Great. Thanks.

Then on the Friday 31 January, the DA released a statement claiming they would hold a press conference on Monday 3 February to “welcome Dr Ramphele and Agang members into the DA structures”. It’s Monday today. There was a press conference. They told us all about how dangerous Dr Ramphele is and that democracy is lost. So after an entire weekend of back and forthing, reports of  tensions between Hellen Zille and Dr Ramphele began to circulate madly on Saturday, culminating in the calling of a meeting on Sunday to discuss exactly what was going  on.

Interestingly, the DA-Agang SA merger was the biggest story of the week because of two things: A. the potential it held to truly revolutionise SA politics had it survived and B. Other than Gwede Mantashe referring to the DAgang move as rent-a-black, none of the other parties said much. Almost as though they waited for Helen and Mampies to mess up all on their own.

Meanwhile EVERYONE IS LIKE….

AND AT THE ANC…

The story of #Elections2014 continues.  Stick with #LiveVIPZA and we’ll give you analysis, debates, comments, polls and all you need to make it through the all-important task of VOTING during the 2014 elections.

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