Mashaba’s party attracts 500 would-be councillors
● As Herman Mashaba’s Action SA prepares to contest key metros in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal the party said it has received over 500 volunteer public representatives for the coming local government elections.
In an interview with the Sunday Times this week, Mashaba said the party is eyeing hotly contested Gauteng metros including Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni — and possibly eThekwini in KwaZulu-Natal.
The former Johannesburg mayor said the party wants to recruit upright citizens without a dark past.
“As part of the vetting process we are asking people to produce a police clearance certificate and that should be part of your application.
“Unlike the other parties, that is the first thing we do before checking other things like social behaviour and your commitment.” Mashaba would not reveal how many members have registered with the party, but said 60% of the people who participated in the People’s Dialogue it arranges are people who have given up on voting.
In addition to campaigning and increasing membership, Mashaba said he plans to impart to councillors the knowledge and experience he gained as a businessman and mayor of Johannesburg.
“I have had a privileged life from the age of 22 when I decided to change my life and now I have the opportunity which, to me, is the biggest privilege and that is to serve my country. That is why I got so cross with the DA when they were against me when I provided services to the poor people in communities.
“The [DA] said why must I put money in communities that don’t pay tax and don’t vote for them and I said to them that they were insulting me because I did not join the DA to serve them but to serve society,” he said.
Mashaba’s party has attracted politicians such as outspoken former ANC MPs Dr Makhosi Khoza and Vytjie Mentor as well as the DA’s erstwhile Gauteng leader, John Moodey.
“Our party is not going to be a party of celebrities, it is a party of ethical leaders,” he said.
In 2019, Mashaba left his job as mayor of Johannesburg and quit the DA after the reelection of Helen Zille as chair of the DA’s federal council. He launched the People’s Dialogue, an NGO that canvassed South Africans about the future of the country. It was out of these dialogues that Action SA was born.
But just nine days after registering the party with the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), the party’s registration was rejected because of the logo’s similarities with that of Party of Action South Africa as well as the national flag.
Mashaba consulted his legal team and was advised it was not worth continuing the “political game” by taking the matter to court, he said.
It was decided that the party logo would be changed and just two weeks before Christmas last year the party successfully registered with the IEC.
Mashaba revealed that he has written to DA leader John Steenhuisen asking him to retract comments he made in a recent interview with the Sunday Times.
Steenhuisen took a dig at Mashaba, saying, among other things, that “he failed to turn the city around”.
“I am going to teach him a lesson,” vowed Mashaba, adding that he has left the task of clearing his name to Steenhuisen.
“I take it very personal,” he said. Steenhuisen also claimed that Mashaba resigned and left the DA because he feared that he would be voted out of office in a motion of no confidence.
Mashaba said he feels vindicated.
“When the DA approached me to be their mayoral candidate … I truly trusted them and I thought they were truly committed to social justice and [to] unseating the ANC. Unfortunately, during the three years of my mayoralty of the City of Johannesburg they demonstrated to me beyond any reasonable doubt that they do not want to remove the ANC from power. They are not interested in the advancement of black people.”