As we approach the end of yet another exciting year of ActionSA growth and momentum, it is highly appropriate for me to express our profound appreciation for your incredible support of our efforts.
As we take stock of 2023, it is clear that ActionSA continues to blaze the trail for a viable political alternative in South Africa. Just a few of these highlights:
– Registering strong growth in by-elections in diverse communities in different provinces;
– Holding a widely-publicised policy conference;
– Establishing ActionSA structures 40% of the wards of our country and growing rapidly;
– Successfully turning out thousands of first-time voters in the November Registration Weekend;
– 4 Premier Candidates headlining provincial campaigns, with further announcements to follow.
– Winning a court case compelling government to supply uninterrupted electricity to all Schools, Hospitals and Police Stations; and
– Rolling out an ActionSA Political Academy to develop an ActionSA Institutional Culture.
As I record this selection of our achievements this year I am mindful of how your support of ActionSA has been instrumental in our success. While our competitors continue to receive hundreds of millions in state funding each year, ActionSA is entirely dependent on the generous support we receive from you and other prominent South Africans.
On behalf of a grateful party, and the growing number of South Africans who find hope in our efforts, I thank you and your family for your generous support in 2023. We enter 2024 as an election year and once again ask for your ongoing support for our offer to reach more and more South Africans.
Limpopo’s political new kid on the block, ActionSA, emerged as the biggest winner in the three-horse highly contested Ward 10 by-election in Moletjie, Limpopo Province. Without a branch in Ward 10, ActionSA persuaded John Hlongwane to take membership of the party and stand as a candidate in the 25 January 2023 by-election.
In February, President Herman Mashaba presented a vision to Fix South Africa after the removal of the ANC in 2024.
It is a dream for a future for South Africa freed from the ANC – a country defined by hope and prosperity that its people are proud to call their home.
President Herman Mashaba commemorated Human Rights Day in Sharpeville, sharing how 29 years since democracy arrived, the dreams of those who fought for it have not been achieved. For too long, the ANC-led government has slowly eroded the gains made since the 1994 elections and has infringed on the rights of South Africans by neglecting our public infrastructure such as railways and roads, delivering unreliable electricity, and supplying deteriorating quality of water.
The people who fought so bravely for our democracy would not be happy with the state of Sharpeville today with its drug problems and poverty. Neither would they be happy with the state of South Africa, and we have to fight to achieve their dreams for a better South Africa.
This process saw teachers, principals, school inspectors, early childhood development experts and school governing body members coming together to talk about fixing our education system. It saw policemen and women, prosecutors, retired judges and private security specialists workshopping plans to tackle crime in our country. This took place publicly in live broadcasts to all South Africans and differentiated from the political establishment which typically replies on politicians to write policies about challenges in areas of our society in which they have no real experience.
ActionSA, UDM and 17 others claimed victory by securing electricity supply to all South African public health establishments, schools and police stations, after we won Part A of our court case against the Minister of Public Enterprises and others.
The Pretoria High Court ruled that the Department of Enterprises, in conjunction with or without other Organs of State, must within 60 days take all reasonable steps to provide uninterrupted electricity supply to all public health establishments, schools and South African Police Service police stations across South Africa.
The legal victory ensures that communities across South Africa will no longer be subject to the failures of the ANC and Eskom, which have left our communities at their mercy when hospitals, police stations and schools lose electricity during increasing levels of load shedding.
ActionSA believes South African Youth should honour the legacy of those who died in the 1976 student uprising by registering to vote in the upcoming 2024 elections to remove the ANC and put South Africa back on a path of prosperity.
At the launch of ActionSA’s voter registration campaign at Thokoza Park, Soweto, on Youth Day today, we helped to register hundreds of new voters, and I shared that South African Youth have the power to reclaim their future. But they can only do that if they register to vote, and cast their ballots to remove the ANC.
We believe that the dreams and visions of the 1976 generation have not been achieved, and instead, the ANC have used South Africa’s democracy to enrich themselves and their cronies. The best way to honour those who have fought and died in the Soweto Uprising would be to register to vote to remove the ANC.
During this tour, we resolved to continue working with religious leaders of all formations as part of our stakeholder relations and we look forward to more of these kinds of engagements in the near future as we embark on the road to the 2024 General Elections.
We remain concerned about service delivery in the North West Province as it is deteriorating on a daily basis. The North West team took the President on an oversight visit to the Seweding and Phola villages to highlight this problem. The community of Seweding and Phola villages are being ignored by the Mahikeng Local Municipality after reporting a sewerage spill close to two months ago and it has still not been attended to.
ActionSA has signed joined the Multi-Party Charter For South Africa along with 7 other political parties (DA, IFP, FF Plus, ACDP, SNP, UIM and ISANCO) following a 2 day convention held on 16-17 August 2023.
While trust building remains on ongoing project, the Charter is an historic first in South Africa which will see the parties cooperating prior to the election and staging joint events that seek to highlight our jointly held policy solutions to South Africa’s greatest challenges.
ActionSA remains strongly aligned to this Charter while using our platform in the agreement to petition for more parties to join so that South Africans can see a viable majority arising from the groups.
The inaugural ActionSA Policy Conference was held from 12 to 14 September and saw over 600 delegates come together from across our country. The conference was a showcase of the fastest growing and most diverse political party in South Africa engaging about the problems facing our country and how they must be addressed.
Ultimately, the policy conference resolved to adopt an array of policies which differentiate ActionSA from all other parties and lays down a real alternative to the failures of our current government. This is the foundation on which we will build a distinct election offer for the 2024 elections which will have broad appeal to all South Africans.
The families of Solomon Nyirenda, Pretty Nkambule and Yvonne Mnisi – who were engulfed by a sinkhole at Lily Mine in February 2016 – granted ActionSA Power of Attorney to pursue further legal action against those liable for the tragedy and ensure that the business rescue procedures are implemented as determined by the Mbombela Magistrates’ Court.
ActionSA canvassed and registered over 1000 first-time voters at the launch of our #RegisterToFixSA’s campaign in Tembisa, Ekurhuleni, today as we embark on registering thousands of new voters in the run-up to the registration weekend on the 18th of November.
To remove the ruling party, and fix South Africa, ActionSA knows that the over 14 million currently unregistered voters need to be registered and motivated to vote in the 2024 elections.
No Vote, No Voice, No Change.
On Saturday, 2 December 2023, we officially launched our 2024 election campaign in Ga-Ramotse, Hammanskraal.
ActionSA leaders, members and activists from across the country gathered as President Herman Mashaba outlined our vision and plans for a prosperous future for all South Africans.
We are extremely proud of how far we have come in just a few short years, since we launched to a virtual audience as we faced a global lockdown.
The outcome of the by-elections in Ward 64 in the City of Tshwane, where ActionSA grew support from 11.9% in the 2021 municipal government elections to 23.4% on Wednesday, highlights how ActionSA is the only political party that can win support in both suburban and township communities.
When ActionSA contests in township communities, we emerge as the first or second biggest political party. And when ActionSA contests in suburban communities, we emerge as the first or second biggest political party. This shows that we are currently the only political party which appeals to all communities in South Africa, unlike our competitors.
These results bode well for ActionSA as we embark on our nationwide campaign for the 2024 national elections, and show that ActionSA remains the only political alternative which can successfully take votes away from the ruling party.
In Ward 64, ActionSA managed to reduce the support of the ANC from 11% in 2021 to 6% on Wednesday and reduced the support of the EFF from 9% to a meagre 3% on Wednesday.
This follows similar successful by-elections across the country where we contested the past year. In the City of Johannesburg Ward 7 in June, ActionSA grew its support from 5.02% to 14.48% while the ANC’s fell dramatically from 37.55% to 24.38%.
In Nongoma in rural KwaZulu-Natal in April, ActionSA achieved 10.2% despite never having contested in the area – surpassing the EFF. And in the Ward 10 by-election in Moletjie, Limpopo Province, in January, ActionSA took support away from both the ANC and EFF to attain 10% overall.
The by-election results show that ActionSA is on track to emerge as a significant player in the 2024 elections and that we are on track to achieve our goal of becoming the second-biggest political party after those elections. Unlike opinion polling, these by-elections are based on the reality on the ground.
Another significant milestone in ActionSA’s journey towards a successful electoral support was the launch of a branch in Umhlanga, Ward 35, KwaZulu-Natal, yesterday.
ActionSA will build on this momentum to continue to build support across the country and register as many new voters as possible to remove the ruling party and restore South Africa to a path to prosperity. Change is coming across South Africa.
ActionSA canvassed and registered over 1000 first-time voters at the launch of our #RegisterToFixSA’s campaign in Tembisa, Ekurhuleni, today as we embark on registering thousands of new voters in the run-up to the registration weekend on the 18th of November.
To remove the ruling party, and fix South Africa, ActionSA knows that the over 14 million currently unregistered voters need to be registered and motivated to vote in the 2024 elections. No Vote, No Voice, No Change.
Only 10 million people voted for the ruling party in the 2019 elections, and therefore 14 million new voters will easily remove the ruling party and start the process to fix the country and restore it to a path of prosperity.
ActionSA has therefore launched a countrywide campaign to register new voters ahead of next year’s elections, with our very first registration campaign taking place in Tembisa, Ekurhuleni, today.
Over the past two years, ActionSA has focussed on building branches in all nine provinces of the country. Teams of volunteers from these branches have canvassed their communities and identified 150,000 South Africans who need to register before they can cast their vote in next year’s elections.
Of particular interest is the fact that over 20% of ActionSA’s 250,000 members are unregistered and prospective first-time voters in 2024. This significant large portion of our member base reveals the extent to which ActionSA is attracting the support of South Africans who would otherwise not vote.
ActionSA will work tirelessly over the coming weeks and over the registration weekend to ensure that every South African who seeks change for their country can walk into a voting station next year, receive a ballot paper and enter a booth to start the change to Fix South Africa.
Introducing our Northern Cape Premier Candidate for the 2024 elections, Andrew Louw.
Louw has a long history of service to the people of the Northern Cape and represents the calibre of leadership ActionSA hopes to bring when we enter government next year.
“As a lifelong resident of the Northern Cape, I have a deep understanding of the unique challenges our province faces. Ranging from economic development and unemployment to tackling corruption and addressing crime.”
The families of Solomon Nyirenda, Pretty Nkambule and Yvonne Mnisi – who were engulfed by a sinkhole at Lily Mine in February 2016 – have today granted ActionSA Power of Attorney to pursue further legal action against those liable for the tragedy and ensure that the business rescue procedures are implemented as determined by the Mbombela Magistrates’ Court.
Following last week’s Constitutional Court ruling and Magistrate’s Court inquest judgement, ActionSA will use the Power of Attorney to pursue civil and criminal litigation concurrently. This, against the parties found to be liable, to ensure that the families receive the justice they deserve.
ActionSA has, for the last 7 years, assisted the families who have repeatedly been let down by dilatory and vexatious legal challenges while their pleas for assistance from Mineral Resources Minister, Gwede Mantashe, and the national government have also fallen on deaf ears. ActionSA, therefore, believe the steps taken, today, will not only ensure that the bodies are retrieved, but also that the families are fairly compensated for the impact the tragedy had on their community.
As a party which values social justice, ActionSA will now use the Power of Attorney to achieve the following:
– Ensure that the amended Business Rescue Plan is voted on within 14 days of the Constitutional Court ruling. The plan stipulates that mining operations at Lily Mine resume, and a new shaft be dug which would help retrieve the three miners’ bodies.
– Write to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) for the plans to pursue prosecution instituting any against those the courts have found liable for the tragedy. If they do not institute charges, ActionSA will approach the National Prosecuting Authority to get Nolle prosequi to possibly launch our own private prosecution.
– Launch civil action to ensure that the families of the three miners are fairly compensated for the impact the tragedy has had on them for more than 7 years.
These steps follow last week’s Constitutional Court ruling refusal to grant Vantage Goldfield’s leave to appeal a ruling which determined that the adopted Business Rescue Plan and amendments thereto should be submitted to creditors for a decision and the Mbombela Magistrates Court inquest which determined that the mine owners, the South African Police Service and Department of Minerals and Energy are to blame for the tragedy.
ActionSA is grateful for the role the South African judiciary has played in this regard to protect the lives of the most innocent and vulnerable and ensure that the culprits are held responsible.
ActionSA remains resolute in our commitment to help retrieve the bodies of the three miners and will continue to assist the families in any way possible. We cannot allow people to forget what happened at Lily Mine on 5 February 2016, and we need to ensure justice for the miners and their families.
The inaugural ActionSA Policy Conference was held from 12 to 14 September and saw over 600 delegates come together from across our country. The conference was a showcase of the fastest growing and most diverse political party in South Africa engaging about the problems facing our country and how they must be addressed.
Ultimately, the policy conference resolved to adopt an array of policies which differentiate ActionSA from all other parties and lays down a real alternative to the failures of our current government. This is the foundation on which we will build a distinct election offer for the 2024 elections which will have broad appeal to all South Africans.
Our public engagement platform ran from May to August 2023 and allowed South Africans to play a significant role in shaping our policy direction. Most distinguishingly, it ensured that our policy framework reflected the aspirations and desires of all South Africans and not politicians.
Following this, ActionSA initiated a series of professional-led policy roundtables. These roundtables played a pivotal role in our policy formulation process and constituted a deliberate effort to gather submissions from experts, whether through their extensive industry experience or academic study.
The considerations within the Senate also led to the formulation of a set of draft policy proposals that delegates will be tasked with reviewing at the Policy Conference next week.
Over the course of the three days, South Africans witnessed the most diverse and fastest-growing political party in the country developing a solutions blueprint for South Africa.
We are a new party, not a small party.
National Chairperson, Michael Beaumont delivered the ActionSA organisational report, reflecting on the party’s growth over the last three years.
It is an incredible privilege for me to stand before the fastest-growing and the most diverse political party in South Africa. I am humbled at the speed with which we are building a political home for all South Africans.
President Herman Mashaba delivered a inspirational speech at the opening ceremony of the ActionSA Policy Conference.
This inaugural policy conference – roughly three years since we were launched – is another milestone marking our continued growth.
We came together, from all corners of this country, to provide solutions to fix South Africa, and we did not provide pie-and-the-sky answers to the country’s problems, but embraced practical solutions that – if implemented – will radically change South Africa. Solutions that will help us achieve our South African dream of a more prosperous future.
Our focus was not on the problems we face, but on the opportunities ahead. Because the South African dream – a vision for a better more abundant prosperous South Africa – is possible.
ActionSA believes that the world’s multilateral institutions must reflect the diversity of the global community. Therefore, ActionSA advocates for a fair multilateral system that ensures equitable representation and power-sharing between countries from the global North and South. South Africa actively participates in international forums, such as the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, and the G20, to promote a more inclusive and just global order.
“We are ready to create an enabling environment required for economic competitiveness by reducing the barriers to innovation and growth, and improving collaboration between the public sector, labour organisations, industry bodies and individual firms. Ladies and gentlemen, we advocate for increased investment in entrepreneurial skills and innovative thinking that will allow South Africa’s SMME-sector to improve its economic contribution.”
~ Funzi Ngobeni, Gauteng Provincial Chairperson
“Let’s rather put prisoners to work. Prison should not be a place where you receive a free meal and education, but a place where you can be rehabilitated and give back to society what you took. This is why prisoners should become part of a labour force that reinvigorates public work programmes that fixes crumbling infrastructure and cleans up our communities.”
~ John Moodey, ActionSA Senate Member
ActionSA has adopted a scaffolding approach to Basic Education where each education phase is linked to the next. Our ECD approach for example, through mother-tongue and English instruction, puts in place the foundation for basic numeracy and literacy and age-appropriate, practical life skills, Foundation Phase builds on that foundation in terms of developing literacy and basic maths and other phases continue to build on that solid foundation.
The solutions that came out of this conference are NOT pie-and-the-sky answers to South Africa’s problems. They are practical solutions that – if implemented – will radically change South Africa. This is only the beginning of South Africa’s great story. ACTION is possible, and we WILL fix Soth Africa!
The 2024 election presents an unprecedented opportunity for the people of South Africa to elect a new government that can steer our country out of the multiple crises it faces. For the very first time since 1994, the incumbent governing party is set to lose its majority when voters go to the polls next year.
The credible prospect of a change in government next year is cause for optimism. But it also places a profound responsibility on the shoulders of opposition parties that want to take South Africa into a fundamentally better direction. As the leaders of seven different political organisations, this is a responsibility we take seriously. We know that many citizens are anxious about the future. We know that they want certainty that the new national government that replaces ANC domination next year will be stable, viable and effective. Above all, they want opposition parties to provide a viable path to achieving the 50%+1 majority we need to form a government without the ANC, the EFF and their proxies that can deliver a prosperous future for all South Africans.
Party leaders have agreed on an agenda that will guide negotiations at the Convention to ensure that we emerge with the strongest possible agreement. Important items on the agenda include the values and principles that will guide a Pact government, formulation of a joint minimum programme of action, rules of engagement during the upcoming election campaign, and a formula to form a Cabinet after the 2024 election. These items are critical to forming a stable Pact government that can deliver.
ActionSA concluded a substantial public survey during the month of July which sought to engage the views of South Africans towards the multi-party National Convention.
The survey engaged 21, 050 South Africans across all nine provinces and solicited their views on a wide variety of topics relating to the National Convention.
A moment.
— Siviwe Gwarube (@Siviwe_G) August 16, 2023
Opposition parties gather to agree on an alternative vision for South Africa. A reset. A rescue plan. 🇿🇦 ✊🏾#NationalConvention2024 pic.twitter.com/oeQVx9wE93
Seeing opposition party leaders at the #NationalConvention2024🇿🇦 working together for a common goal is very welcomed and indicates a sign of maturity in South Africa’s democracy.
— Ofentse Donald Davhie (@donalddavhie) August 16, 2023
The ANC is going to face a challenge it has never faced in its 101 years of existence. pic.twitter.com/Cuqrflynvb
#sabcnews @Action4SA leader, Herman Mashaba says this is the first time that leaders of political parties put aside their differences for the greater good of South Africans. #NationalConvention2024 pic.twitter.com/CJ0oXlFR9r
— Natasha Nokuthula Phiri (@NatashaN_Phiri) August 16, 2023
Today I believe that we have started to build a platform that is going to free South Africans from the ANC and start the work required to fix our county!
President Mashaba speaking at the final day of the Multi-Party Convention about the deliberations taken by the political parties present and the determination and collective hope that they have in fixing our country.
ActionSA marched to the offices of Police Minister, Bheki Cele, who should’ve been dismissed years ago for his incompetence, where we handed over a memorandum to demand that action be taken within the next three months to urgently address the continued decline in the quality of South African Police Stations.
Cele now faces a deadline: three months to enact meaningful change.
In recent weeks, South Africans have been continually confronted with the disintegration of the South African Police Service (SAPS). Incidents ranging from the brutal assaults by the SAPS’s VIP unit to Thabo Bester’s escape and the ongoing troubles with Zama Zamas in Riverlea are constant reminders of a system in decay. These are not isolated occurrences; rather, they paint a bleak picture of a police service failing to respond to emergencies or provide the necessary equipment.
ActionSA’s recent survey exposed some deeply troubling statistics:
As a party that staunchly upholds the rule of law, ActionSA’s demand is unambiguous. Minister Cele must devise and present an action plan within three months to reverse the troubling trend highlighted by South Africa’s escalating murder rate. Specifically, we are calling on the Minister to ensure:
The loss of trust in the police is not a baseless sentiment among South Africans. The alarming crime statistics reveal an unsettling reality: rising murder rates, increasing sexual violence, and escalating robbery with aggravating circumstances.
Despite these grim facts, ActionSA continues to applaud and support the many men and women in uniform who tirelessly and honorably serve to keep us safe. However, these dedicated officers are being failed by a politicized leadership, more concerned with self-interest and protecting the political elite than addressing the urgent needs of South Africans.
Join ActionSA as we persist in our fight to restore integrity, responsibility, and efficiency to the police service. Our march today is just one step in our unwavering commitment to creating a safer South Africa for all.
The by-election reaffirms that ActionSA continues on its growth trajectory, and is the only political party in South Africa which successfully manages to win support away from the ANC. This will be crucial as we enter the important 2024 national elections. In every single black voting district where the ANC previously dominated, ActionSA achieved double-digit growth at the expense of the ANC:
Our support at the Al Furqaan Islamic Centre has meant that ActionSA won this voting district from the ANC for the very first time – once again proving our ability to unseat the ANC in the heart of its previous strongholds.
While ActionSA managed to achieve double-digit growth in black voting districts, we achieved marginal growth in the coloured community of Ennerdale, which represented the largest voting districts. This led to the PA’s victory overall and we congratulate the PA and their candidate in this regard.
ActionSA will continue to work with our coloured communities to ensure that their voices, together with the voices of all residents, are heard and needs are addressed.
When ActionSA launched in 2020, we launched with the intention of being a political party in government. The City of Johannesburg Ward 7 by-elections are an important indicator on the road to achieving this goal, showing continued growth ahead of the 2024 elections to unseat the ANC.
ActionSA believes South African Youth should honour the legacy of those who died in the 1976 student uprising by registering to vote in the upcoming 2024 elections to remove the ANC and put South Africa back on a path of prosperity.
At the launch of ActionSA’s voter registration campaign at Thokoza Park, Soweto, on Youth Day today, we helped to register hundreds of new voters, and I shared that South African Youth have the power to reclaim their future. But they can only do that if they register to vote, and cast their ballots to remove the ANC.
Next year’s elections will be the first time since 1994 that the real opportunity exists to remove the ANC from power and start fixing South Africa to create a better life for the Youth today and generations to come.
We believe that the dreams and visions of the 1976 generation have not been achieved, and instead, the ANC have used South Africa’s democracy to enrich themselves and their cronies. The best way to honour those who have fought and died in the Soweto Uprising would be to register to vote to remove the ANC.
Too many people have fought and died for the right to participate in democracy in South Africa and that is why ActionSA believes Youth should use that right to ensure a better life for themselves and their children.
If voters do not participate in South Africa’s democracy, they enable the ANC to continue looting the country’s coffers and implementing policies which kill jobs and lead to worse service delivery for all, higher crime and poorer quality of life.
ActionSA, a party which values electoral reform to make politicians more accountable to the people they serve, will spend the months ahead registering unregistered voters to help convince them that an alternative to the current broken government is possible.
ActionSA, UDM and 17 others claimed victory by securing electricity supply to all South African public health establishments, schools and police stations, after we won Part A of our court case against the Minister of Public Enterprises and others.
The Pretoria High Court ruled that the Department of Enterprises, in conjunction with or without other Organs of State, must within 60 days take all reasonable steps to provide uninterrupted electricity supply to all public health establishments, schools and South African Police Service police stations across South Africa.
The legal victory ensures that communities across South Africa will no longer be subject to the failures of the ANC and Eskom, which have left our communities at their mercy when hospitals, police stations and schools lose electricity during increasing levels of load shedding.
The court case by ActionSA, UDM and 17 others seeks to, among others, declare the ANC-led government’s response to loadshedding as unconstitutional and breaching a number of fundamental constitutional rights. Part B is enrolled for hearing in September 2023.
After almost 15 years of loadshedding it is clear that the ANC government lacks the will to resolve the crisis, leaving South Africans in the dark. It is our belief that without urgent intervention by our Courts, the government will continue to let the ensuing crisis persist unabated.
ActionSA would like to thank the remainder of our legal for their tireless work on this matter – Adv. Bruce Dyke SC, who led our team, our junior counsel Adv. Anusha Nadasen, and our attorneys Michael Herbst and Michelle Clarke.
“To fix South Africa, we need to ensure that every South African has the opportunity to pursue their dreams and make them a reality. But as long as our country is held captive by a government that does not value true freedom, this will not change.”
– Herman Mashaba
President Herman Mashaba led our Freedom Day Commemoration on the fields of Giant Stadium in Soshanguve, Tshwane, where hundreds of activists joined.
Twenty-nine years after South Africa’s first democratic election, the country does not represent the hopes and aspirations of those who first voted as they have been let down by the ANC’s kleptomania.
Mashaba was joined by National Spokesperson, Lerato Ngobeni; Gauteng Provincial Chairperson, Funzi Ngobeni; KZN and Limpopo Provincial Chairpersons Zwakele Ngqondo-Ngqondo Mncwango and Sello Lediga, as well as other national and provincial leaders.
President Mashaba adressed the massive crowd at Giant Stadium and then began marching to Soshanguve police station to demand improved policing.
ActionSA’s Senate has resolved that its first policy conference will be held from 12 – 14 September 2023.
This is a big moment for ActionSA as part of our general maturation and democratisation of internal decision-making but also because our offer to South Africans next year must arise from a comprehensive policy suite.
The plans adopted by our Senate achieve a process that is both grass-root in its approach to internal participation but also expert-led in terms of our plans to publicly convene panels of South Africans with expertise and experience in tackling our failed public service in South Africa.
This process will see teachers, principals, school inspectors, early childhood development experts and school governing body members coming together to talk about fixing our education system. It will see policemen and women, prosecutors, retired judges and private security specialists workshopping plans to tackle crime in our country. This will happen publicly in live broadcasts to all South Africans and it will differentiate from the political establishment which typically replies on politicians to write policies about challenges in areas of our society in which they have no real experience.
Arising from this extensive plan will be a policy platform that will make ActionSA distinct from all other parties and that will present a rational and detailed plan to Fix South Africa.
ActionSA’s Senate has resolved that its first policy conference will be held from 12 – 14 September 2023.
This is a big moment for ActionSA as part of our general maturation and democratisation of internal decision-making but also because our offer to South Africans next year must arise from a comprehensive policy suite.
The plans adopted by our Senate achieve a process that is both grass-root in its approach to internal participation but also expert-led in terms of our plans to publicly convene panels of South Africans with expertise and experience in tackling our failed public service in South Africa.
This process will see teachers, principals, school inspectors, early childhood development experts and school governing body members coming together to talk about fixing our education system. It will see policemen and women, prosecutors, retired judges and private security specialists workshopping plans to tackle crime in our country. This will happen publicly in live broadcasts to all South Africans and it will differentiate from the political establishment which typically replies on politicians to write policies about challenges in areas of our society in which they have no real experience.
Arising from this extensive plan will be a policy platform that will make ActionSA distinct from all other parties and that will present a rational and detailed plan to Fix South Africa.
The only way the ANC can be removed from national and provincial governments next year is by political parties that can win votes away from the ANC and its partners. ActionSA continues to demonstration that we have the ability to win significant support away from the ANC and EFF in rural communities across South Africa.
The by-election reaffirms that ActionSA continues on its growth trajectory, and is the only political party in South Africa which successfully manages to win support away from the ANC. This will be crucial as we enter the important 2024 national elections. In every single black voting district where the ANC previously dominated, ActionSA achieved double-digit growth at the expense of the ANC:
Our support at the Al Furqaan Islamic Centre has meant that ActionSA won this voting district from the ANC for the very first time – once again proving our ability to unseat the ANC in the heart of its previous strongholds.
This by-election was the first for ActionSA in KwaZulu-Natal and a continued demonstration that ActionSA has the ability to win significant support away from the ANC and EFF in rural communities across South Africa.
ActionSA has undergone a rapid expansion throughout KwaZulu-Natal over the past few months. Campaigns have driven ActionSA’s recognition across the province and have worked to spread the message of ActionSA as a viable alternative.
This result demonstrates how, working together, the IFP and ActionSA can make significant strides in KwaZulu-Natal to win across ANC support ahead of the 2024 national and provincial elections where the ANC can be removed nationally and in KwaZulu-Natal. This result is a victory to all South Africans who seek change in next year’s election.
Limpopo’s political new kid on the block, ActionSA, emerged as the biggest winner in the three-horse highly contested Ward 10 by-election in Moletjie, Limpopo Province. Without a branch in Ward 10, ActionSA persuaded John Hlongwane to take membership of the party and stand as a candidate in the 25 January 2023 by-election.
Campaigning in an environment where three months prior the residents had not even heard of the name ActionSA, the new but definitely not small party has virtually emerged as the third biggest party in Limpopo.
Having achieved 8% and becoming the third largest party in this ward in just seven weeks, it is clear that ActionSA continues to grow and that our offer is resonating with the people of NMB.
While it is our intention to win every election we contest, we are encouraged by this significant result in the Eastern Cape.
This by-election was like no other because it was not just about the ward in which it took place, but is about the future of NMB as the leadership hangs in the balance between the ANC or themulti-party coalition.
As the City approaches 30 days water supply remaining, in the absence of any plan, the control of the City is all important to all of its residents who continue to lose faith in the ANC as evidenced by its double-digit decline in this ward.
ActionSA emerged from the by-election as the party registering the greatest growth result, with the exception of an independent candidate.
Increasing from 12.7% to 21.8% is a result that stakes ActionSA’s claim as the party that can challenge the ANC by winning across their support in sufficient numbers to challenge their political monopoly. This is a vital achievement in the effort to provide South Africans with hope that the political establishment has not previously provided.
This result also demonstrates how the ANC is collapsing. The ANC’s support in Soweto has gone from 89%, at its high-water mark, not to 31% in yesterday’s by-election. While ActionSA does not stand alone in driving this collapse, the truth is that places like Soweto no longer offer the ANC the protection of guaranteed support and will begin to drive their removal from power in 2024.
ActionSA celebrated phenomenal growth in the party’s first-ever by-election – contesting ward 96 in Tshwane.
The results in a hotly contested ward showed that ActionSA was the only party that registered growth, going from the 6.6% achieved in November 2021 to 22.3% the 5th largest party in the ward in 2021 to the 2nd largest now. The DA, VF Plus, EFF and ANC all recorded.
Of particular importance to ActionSA, was the achievement of support across all residents of the ward; a feature of our party that we celebrate, and which continues to set us apart from all other political parties. In this regard ActionSA registered 29% in the suburban areas of Doornpoort, we similarly won the Rooiwal Voting District in a predominantly black community.
ActionSA has submitted motions of no confidence in the City of Johannesburg puppet-mayor Thapelo Amad, the dishonest Speaker Colleen Makhubele and other office bearers who were all appointed through crooked dealings between the ANC’s Gauteng Provincial Chairperson, Panyaza Lesufi, and the EFF.
While political differences may have characterised the tenure of previous Mayors and Speakers it would be safe to say that residents and businesses are embarrassed by what the ANC and EFF have served up to lead the economic hub of our country.
The multi-party coalition of which ActionSA is a part (alongside the DA, IFP, VF Plus and ACDP) has taken back leadership of the City of Tshwane following the successful election of Cilliers Brink as Mayor of Tshwane.
The past few weeks have been a display of instability after the ANC and EFF sought to undermine the majority voters awarded to the political parties that constitute our multi-party coalition. This time has seen the agenda of the residents of Tshwane trampled on by those who sought to steal control of the City of Tshwane and this must be corrected.
The message from ActionSA to Mayor Brink is to ensure that the service delivery agenda of the residents is placed at the forefront of the council agenda. For this to happen the Mayoral Committee needs to be appointed and work must begin immediately to ensure that a service delivery budget to brought to council and that work begins immediately on improving governance in the City.
The multi-party coalition has acted in a unified manner since the election of Makwarela as Mayor on 28 February 2023. ActionSA itself responded decisively by investigating individuals in its ranks and taking decisive action to sustain the multi-party coalition. Parties have worked together, never losing focus on the need to ensure that the majority awarded to our coalition, by the voters, is restored in council.
ActionSA remains committed to the multi-party coalition and is finalising urgent legal action relating to the refusal of the Speaker to allow a motion of no confidence to be considered yesterday.
South Africa Will Have an Opportunity to Restore Human Rights Next Year.
President Herman Mashaba commemorated Human Rights Day in Sharpeville alongside Lerato Ngobeni, National Spokesperson, Funzi Ngobeni, Gauteng Provincial Chairperson, Mothobi Nqhatsetseng, Sedibeng Regional Chairperson, and hundreds of ActionSA activists. Mr Mashaba shared how 29 years since democracy arrived, the dreams of those who fought for it have not been achieved.
For too long, the ANC-led government has slowly eroded the gains made since the 1994 elections and has infringed on the rights of South Africans by neglecting our public infrastructure such as railways and roads, delivering unreliable electricity, and supplying deteriorating quality of water.
The people who fought so bravely for our democracy would not be happy with the state of Sharpeville today with its drug problems and poverty. Neither would they be happy with the state of South Africa, and we have to fight to achieve their dreams for a better South Africa.
But, ActionSA believes that violent protest, disruption and destruction are not the answer to removing the ANC. Instead, South Africans should make use of the democratic right to free and fair elections that so many before us fought for to kick the ANC into the dustbin of history.
ActionSA is pleased to announce that Funzi Ngobeni will assume the role of Gauteng Provincial Chairperson.
The announcement was made by President Herman Mashaba following engagements with the Senate and the Gauteng PEC consulting structures this afternoon. Ngobeni’s nomination was met widely with support.
Ngobeni was amongst the first to join ActionSA in the early days and has proven his ability to lead the structures of ActionSA. He previously served as the National Director of Operations and was responsible for setting up structures of ActionSA across the country.
“It is imperative that our structures in Gauteng are led effectively towards the purpose of ActionSA being the alternative to failed ANC governance. We wish Ngobeni well and are confident that his leadership will put Gauteng on the path to victory in 2024.”
In February, President Herman Mashaba and National Chairperson Michael Beaumont visited the UK to address a sold out gathering of South Africans living in London, sharing the vision to Fix South Africa after the removal of the ANC next year.
To give expression to this vision, ActionSA recently launched our South African Dream. It is a dream for a future for South Africa freed from the ANC – a country defined by hope and prosperity that its people are proud to call their home.
As we work towards the 2024 General Election, ActionSA will be sharing this vision with the people of South Africa, including those who are currently living abroad. We want all South Africans to unite behind this dream and help us to please our country on a path to prosperity once again. This will include organising more engagements with South Africans living abroad, both in person and on virtual platforms.
“We have put our political differences aside. We seek to hold the ANC government and Eskom to account for negatively impacting our economy.”
ActionSA is seeking limited relief to exempt certain sectors, such as educational and healthcare facilities, from load-shedding. This includes:
These facilities are considered central the right to life and should be excluded from loadshedding as a matter of urgency.
After almost 15 years of loadshedding it is clear that the ANC government lacks the will to resolve the crisis, leaving South Africans in the dark. Daily, we are advised of the “plans” to “fix” loadshedding, yet we see no implementation of any appropriate and long-term solution to eradicate the abject failure that loadshedding is. It is our belief that without urgent intervention, the government will continue to let the ensuing crisis persist unabated.
We are hopeful that the judiciary will come to the aid of South Africans, by finally forcing the ANC led government (and its parastatal, Eskom) to meet their Constitutional obligations, owed to the citizens of this country.
"We must encourage ethical leadership and Cllr Kgosietsile Kgosiemang is a symbol of that."
As a party committed to the rule of law, we are resolute in our belief that we will not allow the will of the people to be unlawfully circumvented by corrupt elements in the City of Tshwane. This comes after one of our councillors was offered a bribe of roughly R2 million to vote with the ANC-led opposition parties for Dr Murunwa Makwarela to become the Executive Mayor of the City of Tshwane.
Gauteng Provincial Chairperson Funzi Ngobeni, National Chairperson Michael Beaumont and National Spokesperson Lerato Ngobeni, laid criminal charges against two individuals sent by the Defence of People (DoP) political party who attempted to bribe our councillor to vote for the ANC-led opposition.
The Prevention & Combatting of Corrupt Activities Act of 2004 stipulates that “any person who, directly or indirectly, gives or agrees or offers to give any gratification to a member of the legislative authority, whether for the benefit of that member or for the benefit of another, is guilty of the offence of corrupt activities relating to members of the legislative authority.”
We allege that ahead of the vote for the new City of Tshwane Executive Mayor in February hat our councillor was approached to vote in favour of the ANC-aligned candidate and that he would be rewarded with money equivalent to his annual salary until 2026, which equates to roughly R2 million.
Given that it has emerged that Dr Makwarela appears to have falsified documents in order to unlawfully remain in office, we are not surprised that inducements are alleged to have been offered in order to install him as Executive Mayor in the first place. As such the South African Police Service (SAPS) must investigate this matter fully and mete out justice in an effort to restore confidence, law and order in the running of South Africa’s capital.
The Giyani Bulk Water Project in Limpopo has been a source of frustration for over a decade, as it continues to remain incomplete despite over R4 billion already being spent on it. This has resulted in 55 villages being without water, leaving residents with no choice but to rely on water tankers. The situation has become so dire that some residents have even resorted to using polluted water from nearby dams, resulting in many illnesses and deaths. ActionSA has taken action by writing to Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu and his department, urging them to complete the project, failing which they will take legal action to ensure the project’s completion.
Our legal team is optimistic that the courts will provide justice for the people of Giyani. However, if the Minister and officials in his department do not abide by the court-mandated deadline to complete the project, they will be held in contempt of court and thrown in jail.
This shows the severity of the situation and how important it is for the government to take responsibility for delivering basic services to its citizens. Access to water is a basic human right and is enshrined in the South African Constitution, and the government must do everything in its power to provide citizens with the basic services they are entitled to.
The Giyani Bulk Water Project is an example of how government corruption and incompetence can have a devastating effect on a community. The people of Giyani have been let down for far too long, and it is time for the government to take action and complete the project, providing them with the basic human right of access to water. Our efforts to hold the government accountable for their failures show the importance of citizen action in ensuring that the government is held accountable for its promises and obligations.
On 5 February 2023, seven years after the disastrous tragedy of the collapse of Lily Mine that led to the lamp room container trapping Yvonne Mnisi, Pretty Nkambule and Solomon Nyirenda underground, Herman Mashaba, ActionSA President, alongside Thoko Mashiane, ActionsA Provincial Chairperson led a two-day commemoration alongside family members and friends.
Proceedings began in earnest on Saturday 4 February when Mashaba met with the local Chief, followed by a two-hour prayer session with the Lily Mine families as well as affected miners.
On 5 February, the day culminated with an official commemoration event taking place at the families’ protest campsite where they have been living since 2019 with the aim to put pressure on mine management as well as the South African Government to have the container with their family members retrieved from underground.
ActionSA has committed to continue the fight for justice. We will not stop until the container with the three miners’ remains is lifted from the ground, and the families can mourn their passing through a proper burial.
In the interest of holding the ANC government account for the energy crisis, ActionSA will be taking joint legal action against Eskom, the Department of Mineral and Energy Resources and the Department of Public Enterprises, and the Government of the Republic of South Africa to take them to task over Eskom’s failure to provide South Africa with a stable energy supply.
ActionSA and others are seeking an interdict, prohibiting Eskom from loadshedding essential services and industries.
This important action comes as the energy crisis deepens, with Stage 6 Loadshedding an ever increasing phenomenon. This has precipitated the ANC-led government proposing the implementation of a National State of Disaster, something ActionSA vehemently opposes in light of the abuse and corruption witnessed during the State of Disaster imposed during the COVID pandemic.
After almost 15 years of load shedding it is clear that the ANC government has no plan to resolve the problem, leaving South Africans in the dark. It is our belief that without urgent action, the government of South Africa will continue to let the ensuing crisis persist unabated.
Despite numerous pronouncements and promises from President Cyril Ramaphosa and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe about bringing loadshedding to an end, the situation continues to worsen on an almost daily basis. The President and his cohort are either oblivious to the truth or have blatantly lied to the nation.
ActionSA will do everything in its power to hold the government to account. We have had enough of this dire situation.
On 25 January 2023 ActionSA contested its first by-election of the northern provinces, a ward heavily contested by both the ANC and EFF in Moletji on the outskirts of Seshego in Limpopo.
In spite of the difficult circumstances of this ward, ActionSA achieved a strong first showing of 10% support taking support from both the ANC and EFF.
The importance of this result cannot be underscored enough. In a ward which did not have an ActionSA branch 3 months before election day, for ActionSA to achieve this kind of result shows the potential in rural South Africa is more than most people realise. This result raises the question of what may be possible in 2024 if ActionSA can achieve a result like this in just 3 months.
Delivering these kinds of results is critical in the 2024 elections. Many South Africans already know that ActionSA is capable of building support in diverse communities in metros, but taking votes from the ANC and EFF in rural provinces is a new breakthrough. It positions ActionSA as the only party that can challenge the ANC and EFF strongholds of support in rural provinces and has been subsequently heralded by commentators and pundits. It also challenges the monopoly the EFF has had on support won from the ANC.
Our focus remains to ensure that ActionSA structures build awareness and affinity to our brand across South Africa to raise the bar of potential that was witnessed on this important by-election.
South Africans are understandably growing weary of parties that ought to be working together slugging it out in the media over yet another collapsed coalition, and who should shoulder that blame. While it is easy to mischaracterize this as axe-grinding or point-scoring, this an overly simplistic analysis of a complex situation.
At the heart of the events that led to the collapse of the coalition in Joburg, however messy, are two very different styles of how coalitions should be run. With the ANC certain to drop below 50% for the first time in 2024, coalitions are the inevitable future for South Africa. It is important that voters understand how different parties approach coalitions, and interpret the events in Johannesburg in such a way that it enriches their appreciation of the choices available to them ahead of 2024.
Consider the two styles of coalition leadership in this light which I will endeavor to present as objectively and dispassionately as possible.
On the one hand, the DA adopted the position that the cost of ‘saving Phalatse’ – and in effect handing Joburg to the ANC – by concluding a deal with the PA was too great. Its own negotiating team, who approved a deal accepted by all parties including the PA, were ultimately overruled by its Fedex. The DA elected to adopt the position that the PA’s demands of two MMCs (one more than previously) were too great and that the PA’s intentions were self-enrichment.
Even if we accept that the PA has its shortcomings, the logic of how bringing the PA into our coalition-led Executive with far greater scrutiny is worse than handing the city to an ANC/EFF coalition is unfathomable. When faced with this question, the DA remained impervious to the unanimous views of its coalition partners pointing out both the contradictions of their reasoning, and the foreseeable certainty of the DA’s position leading to the collapse of the coalition and the installation of a Coalition of Corruption in Johannesburg.
The DA decided that as far as their ‘values’ were concerned, the cost of sustaining the coalition was too much. Yet the far worse outcome of passing the cost of an ANC coalition in Joburg and an EFF coalition in Ekurhuleni onto the residents of these two cities clearly presented no such moral challenge.
On the other hand ActionSA, along with the IFP, ACDP, VF Plus and UIM, adopted a very different point of view. It goes without saying that we all would have preferred if the seats needed to sustain the coalition in Joburg lay with a party or parties that made coalition decisions based on shared principle and not specific positions. Regrettably the electoral outcomes reflect the will of the voters, and placed the PA as the king-makers. ActionSA determined that our decision-making must prioritise the residents of Joburg and came to the conclusion that we must work to keep the ANC/EFF coalition out of government in these two metros to honour voters wishes in the last elections. It is far easier to place checks and balances on parties that form part of a coalition agreement.
This is why ActionSA was willing to surrender 2 of our 3 MMC positions to the PA when the DA would not compromise. We recognised that allowing the return of the ANC/EFF would be the ultimate betrayal and that building a coalition alternative to the ANC meant that Mayor Phalatse and the coalition team would need a full 5-year term to demonstrate a reversal of the decay in Joburg.
Trivialising these differences in approach to coalitions as anything less than crucial is to fall into an intellectual trap designed to discourage voters from asking some very important questions ahead of future elections. Of course, values and principles matter and should be the foundation of all coalitions. Equally, we must be pragmatic in interpreting the will of South Africans to get the ANC out of government even if it has to be done through coalitions that, regrettably, cannot always be constituted with coalition partners that see eye to eye on everything. Ultimately we need to consider all available options, and determine which has the greatest prospect of positive change to the residents who we were elected to serve. Certainly this cannot be allowing an unchecked ANC-led coalition to remain in power simply to keep a single party from single portfolio. This is as nonsensical as it is a betrayal of the electioneering in the 2021 local government elections.
The question is whether a party is fundamentally committed to unseating the ANC and keeping them and their partners in crime out of governments? Or forming an alternative – albeit imperfect – that can provide effective oversight of all parties to the coalition and work toward restoring good governance for long enough to deliver positive change to residents.
Importantly, which parties are capable of understanding these nuances and leading complex coalitions that may be necessary to remove the ANC?
Political parties, like voters and members of the media, similarly have to undergo a steep learning curve with these difficult questions of coalition where all parties except one opted to support and sustain the coalition. How do parties under these circumstances operate by consensus to sustain a coalition and yet avoid the perversion of decision-making where one party can drive an outcome that collapses a coalition? These are questions we must grapple with ahead of 2024 where the stakes are too high to repeat mistakes.
When you understand the events in Joburg over the last week through the lens of these differences they cease to be trivial and are, as a matter of fact, some of the most important questions for South Africans to wrestle with ahead of the first election where the removal of the ANC is possible nationally and in a number of provinces.
This piece was published in the Sunday Times, written by Michael Beaumont, ActionSA National Chairperson
ActionSA has filed court papers at the KwaZulu-Natal High Court to compel government officials and authorities to address the sewage crisis across Durban beaches. Despite continued public outcry and a letter of demand by ActionSA, the ministers and the ANC-led governments have failed to address sewage running into rivers and the ocean, threatening the health of people using the water sources. ActionSA has also found that the eThekwini Municipality’s decision to reopen beaches is flawed as independent water testing has shown that E.coli levels, caused by sewage, are up to a thousand times higher than what is safe for use.
In the court papers, ActionSA has asked that the courts mandate authorities to appoint an independent water sanitation expert to attain daily E. coli readings which should be publicly displayed to keep the public updated and ensure improvement in water readings can be trusted. ActionSA is confident that judicial oversight will force the executive to act to remedy the issue. If the parties cited in the application do not file answering affidavits by the deadline, ActionSA will bring their default to the attention of the court and ask for judgment to be granted against them. The respondents who have missed the deadline include the Minister of Tourism, the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, the Minister of Water and Sanitation, the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, the KwaZulu-Natal MEC for CoGTA, and the eThekwini Municipality and its Executive Mayor.
