In 2014, Helen Zille told South Africans not to “waste their votes on smaller parties.” A decade later, she is still singing the same tune, blaming voters for daring to support alternatives like ActionSA or independent candidates, as she did just last month after a narrow by-election loss in eThekwini.
But here is the truth: the only truly wasted vote in Gauteng is a vote for the DA.
This is a party that has failed the people of Tshwane, collapsed coalitions in Johannesburg, and now resorts to scare tactics to cling to its shrinking influence. It remains fixated on the past while South Africans look to the future. The DA’s problem is not that voters are too divided — it is that the DA is too arrogant, wilfully intransigent, and too entitled to earn their trust.
The DA once warned against wasted votes. Now, it is one.
Tshwane: Seven Years of DA Misrule
The DA had governed Tshwane since 2016. In those seven years, the capital city had become a case study in dysfunction:
– The Auditor-General had issued repeated qualified audit opinions, the last citing R2.5 billion in irregular expenditure and R1.3 billion in fruitless and wasteful expenditure.
– The capital budget had been slashed from over R4 billion to R2.1 billion, crippling infrastructure investment and leaving township residents in the dark – both literally and figuratively.
– The city had remained riddled with ghost employees, overtime abuse, and broken systems of accountability.
– Municipal debt to Eskom had ballooned to a staggering R6.83 billion.
– Under Mayor Brink, the Auditor-General had flagged that only 37% of capital project milestones were achieved in the fourth quarter of the published financial statements. Perhaps most damning had been the revelation that R12 billion worth of incomplete projects under construction should be written off.
Tshwane is not a DA success story. It is a warning to every voter in Gauteng.
Turning the Corner in Tshwane: What Leadership Looks Like
Since ActionSA’s Dr Nasiphi Moya assumed office as Executive Mayor in late 2024, the tide in Tshwane is turning. In just over 100 days, the city has shown that where competent and values-driven leadership takes charge, change is possible – even in a complex coalition environment.
Under Dr Moya’s leadership, just some of the City’s accomplishments include:
– The first fully funded budget since 2022 – a turning point in restoring fiscal discipline while prioritising infrastructure and basic services.
– Projected cash reserves of R2.8 billion for the 2025/26 financial year.
– An improvement in liquidity coverage from 23 days to 43 days within two years.
– A 13.56% reduction in the debtor’s book.
– A R1 billion decrease in Eskom debt.
– Exceeding the R1.8 billion investment target for the financial year.
– Visible progress in reversing years of infrastructure decay – with sewage spills repaired, streetlights restored, and municipal responsiveness improving across townships and suburbs.
– Targeted interventions to stabilise key areas like power supply in Soshanguve, ending frequent blackouts and reconnecting residents to dignity.
– Recognition as the safest metro in South Africa – reflecting the early impact of effective oversight and integrated municipal policing.
Importantly, ActionSA achieved this while building and sustaining a multi-party coalition – proof that stable coalitions are possible when egos are set aside and service to residents is the shared goal.
Tshwane stands as a powerful contrast to the DA’s legacy of chaos and demonstrates ActionSA’s capacity not only to critique governance, but to lead it.
A Party That Breaks Coalitions, Then Blames Others
Across Gauteng’s metros, the DA has been the common denominator in every failed coalition. It refuses to collaborate, insists on dominating its partners, and walks away the moment power is not exclusively in its grasp.
In Johannesburg, when ActionSA made a selfless offer to relinquish two of our three Executive seats to keep the multi-party coalition alive, the DA arrogantly rejected it. Their refusal to compromise paved the way for the ANC-led administration now governing Johannesburg.
The residents of the city continue to pay the price for this short-sightedness.
The DA’s Johannesburg Motion: Desperate Theatre
Now, in a stunning display of hypocrisy, the DA returns with motions of no confidence against both the Executive Mayor and the Speaker of Council. But let us be honest: this is no sincere effort to restore governance. It is political theatre, crafted to score headlines and distract from the DA’s own failures.
The DA did not consult any possible partners to back their motion, knowing full well it only holds 70 seats in Council, far short of the 136 required to pass such motions. After losing even more ground to the Patriotic Alliance, the DA has no realistic path to victory. But that was never the point. These motions were not about solutions – they were about spin.
Even worse is their baseless attack on Speaker Nobuhle Mthembu, an ActionSA deployee who has demonstrated consistent leadership in driving Johannesburg’s IDP public participation process. While residents showed up to shape their city’s future, the DA councillors were notably absent – failing to attend, failing to mobilise, and failing to lead.
That is not accountability. That is abandonment.
Gaslighting White Voters While Everyone Suffers
The DA’s most cynical strategy is how it manipulates its traditional white voter base. It frames itself as the last line of defence against collapse, while actively contributing to it. It discredits parties like ActionSA that offer real alternatives, yet it has delivered less and less to its own constituents.
In cities like Tshwane and Johannesburg, even DA-voting suburbs now endure deteriorating roads, rising rates, unreliable electricity, and water outages. In smaller municipalities – like Mogale City, Rand West, Emfuleni, Lesedi and Merafong – the DA has failed as an opposition party to hold the rampant ANC accountable for failing service delivery and corruption.
The idea of the DA as the “smart vote” no longer holds up to the lived experience of the very people it seeks to convince.
What the DA offers is not safety – it is stagnation. And voters are catching on.
Absent From the Ground, Absent from the People
The DA no longer shows up where it matters. While ActionSA drives community engagement, launches branches, and empowers residents to shape their municipalities, the DA is nowhere to be found.
It is absent from IDP processes. Absent from ward meetings. Absent from real service delivery battles. In its place? Press releases, motions, and noise.
They do not show up. They do not lead. They do not listen.
If Not a Motion, Then What? Real Change Starts with the People
It is a fair question asked by many residents: If the current Executive Mayor is failing, and the DA’s motion of no confidence is a stunt – then what must happen now?
Let us be clear. ActionSA is under no illusions about the state of governance in Johannesburg. We have consistently called out the failures of Mayor Dada Morero’s administration – from the unjust R230 electricity surcharge to the deterioration of basic services. The ANC has failed to hold its deployees accountable, and it must be punished at the ballot box for this betrayal of public trust.
But the solution is not the DA’s empty theatrics. The DA had its chance to co-govern. It was offered the opportunity to rescue the coalition government and keep Mayor Phalatse in office. ActionSA even offered to sacrifice two Executive seats. But the DA chose ego over Johannesburg’s future.
So, what now?
We build real, people-driven change from the ground up.
ActionSA is actively launching branches across Gauteng – in every ward, every township, every suburb – to give residents a platform to participate meaningfully in local politics. This is where real accountability starts: not with motions tabled for headlines, but with communities taking ownership of their future.
We are encouraging those who are unhappy with the current state of affairs to join our branches, stand for election as Branch Chairpersons, and help us identify strong, community-rooted leaders who can contest in 2026.
This is our call to action: Do not wait for change – be part of it. Join a branch. Build your community. And help us put forward councillor candidates who will serve, not grandstand.
Gauteng Deserves Better
The DA has proven, time and again, that it cannot govern, cannot collaborate, and cannot evolve.
Voting DA in the upcoming Local Government Elections, expected between November 2026 and February 2027 – is not a protest vote. It is a vote for dysfunction, collapse, and political grandstanding. It is a vote for motions over solutions, drama over delivery, and arrogance over accountability.
Gauteng doesn’t need another failed experiment. It needs leadership that listens, leadership that works in townships and suburbs, black and white, poor and middle-class alike.
ActionSA offers that leadership. The DA has had its chance – and wasted it.
The DA Once Warned About Wasted Votes – Now They Are One
In 2014, Helen Zille told South Africans not to “waste their votes on smaller parties.” A decade later, she is still singing the same tune, blaming voters for daring to support alternatives like ActionSA or independent candidates, as she did just last month after a narrow by-election loss in eThekwini.
But here is the truth: the only truly wasted vote in Gauteng is a vote for the DA.
This is a party that has failed the people of Tshwane, collapsed coalitions in Johannesburg, and now resorts to scare tactics to cling to its shrinking influence. It remains fixated on the past while South Africans look to the future. The DA’s problem is not that voters are too divided — it is that the DA is too arrogant, wilfully intransigent, and too entitled to earn their trust.
The DA once warned against wasted votes. Now, it is one.
Tshwane: Seven Years of DA Misrule
The DA had governed Tshwane since 2016. In those seven years, the capital city had become a case study in dysfunction:
– The Auditor-General had issued repeated qualified audit opinions, the last citing R2.5 billion in irregular expenditure and R1.3 billion in fruitless and wasteful expenditure.
– The capital budget had been slashed from over R4 billion to R2.1 billion, crippling infrastructure investment and leaving township residents in the dark – both literally and figuratively.
– The city had remained riddled with ghost employees, overtime abuse, and broken systems of accountability.
– Municipal debt to Eskom had ballooned to a staggering R6.83 billion.
– Under Mayor Brink, the Auditor-General had flagged that only 37% of capital project milestones were achieved in the fourth quarter of the published financial statements. Perhaps most damning had been the revelation that R12 billion worth of incomplete projects under construction should be written off.
Tshwane is not a DA success story. It is a warning to every voter in Gauteng.
Turning the Corner in Tshwane: What Leadership Looks Like
Since ActionSA’s Dr Nasiphi Moya assumed office as Executive Mayor in late 2024, the tide in Tshwane is turning. In just over 100 days, the city has shown that where competent and values-driven leadership takes charge, change is possible – even in a complex coalition environment.
Under Dr Moya’s leadership, just some of the City’s accomplishments include:
– The first fully funded budget since 2022 – a turning point in restoring fiscal discipline while prioritising infrastructure and basic services.
– Projected cash reserves of R2.8 billion for the 2025/26 financial year.
– An improvement in liquidity coverage from 23 days to 43 days within two years.
– A 13.56% reduction in the debtor’s book.
– A R1 billion decrease in Eskom debt.
– Exceeding the R1.8 billion investment target for the financial year.
– Visible progress in reversing years of infrastructure decay – with sewage spills repaired, streetlights restored, and municipal responsiveness improving across townships and suburbs.
– Targeted interventions to stabilise key areas like power supply in Soshanguve, ending frequent blackouts and reconnecting residents to dignity.
– Recognition as the safest metro in South Africa – reflecting the early impact of effective oversight and integrated municipal policing.
Importantly, ActionSA achieved this while building and sustaining a multi-party coalition – proof that stable coalitions are possible when egos are set aside and service to residents is the shared goal.
Tshwane stands as a powerful contrast to the DA’s legacy of chaos and demonstrates ActionSA’s capacity not only to critique governance, but to lead it.
A Party That Breaks Coalitions, Then Blames Others
Across Gauteng’s metros, the DA has been the common denominator in every failed coalition. It refuses to collaborate, insists on dominating its partners, and walks away the moment power is not exclusively in its grasp.
In Johannesburg, when ActionSA made a selfless offer to relinquish two of our three Executive seats to keep the multi-party coalition alive, the DA arrogantly rejected it. Their refusal to compromise paved the way for the ANC-led administration now governing Johannesburg.
The residents of the city continue to pay the price for this short-sightedness.
The DA’s Johannesburg Motion: Desperate Theatre
Now, in a stunning display of hypocrisy, the DA returns with motions of no confidence against both the Executive Mayor and the Speaker of Council. But let us be honest: this is no sincere effort to restore governance. It is political theatre, crafted to score headlines and distract from the DA’s own failures.
The DA did not consult any possible partners to back their motion, knowing full well it only holds 70 seats in Council, far short of the 136 required to pass such motions. After losing even more ground to the Patriotic Alliance, the DA has no realistic path to victory. But that was never the point. These motions were not about solutions – they were about spin.
Even worse is their baseless attack on Speaker Nobuhle Mthembu, an ActionSA deployee who has demonstrated consistent leadership in driving Johannesburg’s IDP public participation process. While residents showed up to shape their city’s future, the DA councillors were notably absent – failing to attend, failing to mobilise, and failing to lead.
That is not accountability. That is abandonment.
Gaslighting White Voters While Everyone Suffers
The DA’s most cynical strategy is how it manipulates its traditional white voter base. It frames itself as the last line of defence against collapse, while actively contributing to it. It discredits parties like ActionSA that offer real alternatives, yet it has delivered less and less to its own constituents.
In cities like Tshwane and Johannesburg, even DA-voting suburbs now endure deteriorating roads, rising rates, unreliable electricity, and water outages. In smaller municipalities – like Mogale City, Rand West, Emfuleni, Lesedi and Merafong – the DA has failed as an opposition party to hold the rampant ANC accountable for failing service delivery and corruption.
The idea of the DA as the “smart vote” no longer holds up to the lived experience of the very people it seeks to convince.
What the DA offers is not safety – it is stagnation. And voters are catching on.
Absent From the Ground, Absent from the People
The DA no longer shows up where it matters. While ActionSA drives community engagement, launches branches, and empowers residents to shape their municipalities, the DA is nowhere to be found.
It is absent from IDP processes. Absent from ward meetings. Absent from real service delivery battles. In its place? Press releases, motions, and noise.
They do not show up. They do not lead. They do not listen.
If Not a Motion, Then What? Real Change Starts with the People
It is a fair question asked by many residents: If the current Executive Mayor is failing, and the DA’s motion of no confidence is a stunt – then what must happen now?
Let us be clear. ActionSA is under no illusions about the state of governance in Johannesburg. We have consistently called out the failures of Mayor Dada Morero’s administration – from the unjust R230 electricity surcharge to the deterioration of basic services. The ANC has failed to hold its deployees accountable, and it must be punished at the ballot box for this betrayal of public trust.
But the solution is not the DA’s empty theatrics. The DA had its chance to co-govern. It was offered the opportunity to rescue the coalition government and keep Mayor Phalatse in office. ActionSA even offered to sacrifice two Executive seats. But the DA chose ego over Johannesburg’s future.
So, what now?
We build real, people-driven change from the ground up.
ActionSA is actively launching branches across Gauteng – in every ward, every township, every suburb – to give residents a platform to participate meaningfully in local politics. This is where real accountability starts: not with motions tabled for headlines, but with communities taking ownership of their future.
We are encouraging those who are unhappy with the current state of affairs to join our branches, stand for election as Branch Chairpersons, and help us identify strong, community-rooted leaders who can contest in 2026.
This is our call to action: Do not wait for change – be part of it. Join a branch. Build your community. And help us put forward councillor candidates who will serve, not grandstand.
Gauteng Deserves Better
The DA has proven, time and again, that it cannot govern, cannot collaborate, and cannot evolve.
Voting DA in the upcoming Local Government Elections, expected between November 2026 and February 2027 – is not a protest vote. It is a vote for dysfunction, collapse, and political grandstanding. It is a vote for motions over solutions, drama over delivery, and arrogance over accountability.
Gauteng doesn’t need another failed experiment. It needs leadership that listens, leadership that works in townships and suburbs, black and white, poor and middle-class alike.
ActionSA offers that leadership. The DA has had its chance – and wasted it.