Honourable Members,
Today we meet under the weight of a serious legislative development — the Public Protector’s Report No. 21 of 2025/26, which found Premier Panyaza Lesufi’s Crime Prevention Wardens programme to be unlawful, irregular, and unconstitutional.
Let me begin by stating ActionSA’s position with absolute clarity:
Hon. Speaker, this motion cannot remove the Premier — the numbers simply do not allow it.
What it will do is gift the Premier and the ANC an undeserved victory lap, allowing them to act vindicated in the face of a damning Public Protector’s report.
ActionSA will not strengthen the Premier politically by participating in a motion designed for headlines, not outcomes. What is possible — and what ActionSA has already initiated — is binding constitutional accountability.
What do we mean by that?
The Public Protector found that the Premier violated Sections 41(1)(f) and (g) of the Constitution.
And in terms of Section 182(1)(c), the remedial action is binding unless set aside by a court.
ActionSA has, therefore:
- Tabled a Legislative Oversight Motion compelling implementation of the remedial findings.
- Moved for committee summons through OCPOL and the Community Safety Committee.
- Ensured that the Premier must report within 30 days and fully comply within 180 days.
This is accountability with consequences – not political performance.
And let it be clear: Opposing this motion does not protect the Premier — it protects the credibility and seriousness of this Legislature’s oversight role.
Hon. Speaker, let me remind this House:
- ActionSA raised the alarm about this programme back in 2023.
- We referred it to the SIU and the SAHRC long before others cared to notice.
- We opposed this illegality long before others found the courage to speak — and long before Lt. Gen. Mkhwanazi confirmed our concerns at the Ad Hoc Committee in Parliament.
- We opposed it before it was fashionable to do so.
Let me be honest: many of us agree with the diagnosis.
The ANC has failed Gauteng — that is why we fought them in 2024, why we confront them in every by-election, why we push them back in municipalities, and why we will challenge them nationally.
But the DA has one problem:
They voted for Premier Lesufi – and Hon. Mike Moriarty stood up proudly to second his nomination.
Now they seek to recruit ActionSA into a motion crafted to soothe their own political disappointment. This motion is not driven by principle — it is driven by inconsistency, opportunism, and a desire to rewrite their role in this Premier’s rise.
Hon. Speaker, South Africans will remember that the DA sold its voters a story – that joining hands with the ANC in the GNU was the only way to avert a supposed doomsday under the EFF and MK. But the true doomsday is unfolding under President Cyril Ramaphosa’s own GNU – with the DA seated comfortably in Cabinet committees while the country collapses around them.
Under this GNU, unemployment continues to rise.
In the first quarter of this year, unemployment climbed to 32.9%, and by the second quarter it rose again to 33.2%. Youth unemployment remains above 60%, condemning a generation to economic exclusion.
Our productive sectors are shrinking.
- Manufacturing output fell by more than 6% in April.
- Business confidence has slumped; private-sector activity fell back into contraction in October.
- Companies are not expanding, not investing, and not hiring.
- Foreign investors are fleeing.
- Between October last year and June this year, South Africa lost more than $3.7 billion in equity outflows.
- Moody’s has warned that collapsing investment levels threaten our credit-rating prospects.
- Even the Reserve Bank warns we could lose 100,000 jobs simply because the economy is too weak.
And while this decay unfolds, the Madlanga Commission is exposing criminal networks entrenched within the state, hollowing out institutions meant to protect citizens.
Where is the DA’s outrage in the GNU?
Where are their motions?
Where is their consistency?
There is none. Because in the GNU, they are eating.
They are scrambling for ministerial positions, with poor Hon. Dion George as the latest casualty.
They are silent where accountability is needed, yet loud where convenience allows.
Hon. Speaker, ActionSA has been consistent:
- We opposed the Crime Wardens when others applauded them.
- We went to the SIU when others looked away.
- We upheld the Constitution while others counted committee seats.
ActionSA is not captured — we are independent.
We do not trade principle for Cabinet seats.
And we refuse to be guided by political convenience.
Hon. Speaker, ActionSA opposes this Motion of No Confidence because it changes nothing,
and risks strengthening the Premier politically at the very moment he faces a binding legislative finding.
We will not hand the ANC a symbolic political victory.
We will not hand the DA a credibility it has not earned.
We will hold the Premier accountable – properly, lawfully, relentlessly… not through theatre.
Accountability in ACTION!
I thank you.
When Others Play Politics, ActionSA Continues Taking Consistent ACTION to Ensure Accountability
Honourable Members,
Today we meet under the weight of a serious legislative development — the Public Protector’s Report No. 21 of 2025/26, which found Premier Panyaza Lesufi’s Crime Prevention Wardens programme to be unlawful, irregular, and unconstitutional.
Let me begin by stating ActionSA’s position with absolute clarity:
Hon. Speaker, this motion cannot remove the Premier — the numbers simply do not allow it.
What it will do is gift the Premier and the ANC an undeserved victory lap, allowing them to act vindicated in the face of a damning Public Protector’s report.
ActionSA will not strengthen the Premier politically by participating in a motion designed for headlines, not outcomes. What is possible — and what ActionSA has already initiated — is binding constitutional accountability.
What do we mean by that?
The Public Protector found that the Premier violated Sections 41(1)(f) and (g) of the Constitution.
And in terms of Section 182(1)(c), the remedial action is binding unless set aside by a court.
ActionSA has, therefore:
This is accountability with consequences – not political performance.
And let it be clear: Opposing this motion does not protect the Premier — it protects the credibility and seriousness of this Legislature’s oversight role.
Hon. Speaker, let me remind this House:
Let me be honest: many of us agree with the diagnosis.
The ANC has failed Gauteng — that is why we fought them in 2024, why we confront them in every by-election, why we push them back in municipalities, and why we will challenge them nationally.
But the DA has one problem:
They voted for Premier Lesufi – and Hon. Mike Moriarty stood up proudly to second his nomination.
Now they seek to recruit ActionSA into a motion crafted to soothe their own political disappointment. This motion is not driven by principle — it is driven by inconsistency, opportunism, and a desire to rewrite their role in this Premier’s rise.
Hon. Speaker, South Africans will remember that the DA sold its voters a story – that joining hands with the ANC in the GNU was the only way to avert a supposed doomsday under the EFF and MK. But the true doomsday is unfolding under President Cyril Ramaphosa’s own GNU – with the DA seated comfortably in Cabinet committees while the country collapses around them.
Under this GNU, unemployment continues to rise.
In the first quarter of this year, unemployment climbed to 32.9%, and by the second quarter it rose again to 33.2%. Youth unemployment remains above 60%, condemning a generation to economic exclusion.
Our productive sectors are shrinking.
And while this decay unfolds, the Madlanga Commission is exposing criminal networks entrenched within the state, hollowing out institutions meant to protect citizens.
Where is the DA’s outrage in the GNU?
Where are their motions?
Where is their consistency?
There is none. Because in the GNU, they are eating.
They are scrambling for ministerial positions, with poor Hon. Dion George as the latest casualty.
They are silent where accountability is needed, yet loud where convenience allows.
Hon. Speaker, ActionSA has been consistent:
ActionSA is not captured — we are independent.
We do not trade principle for Cabinet seats.
And we refuse to be guided by political convenience.
Hon. Speaker, ActionSA opposes this Motion of No Confidence because it changes nothing,
and risks strengthening the Premier politically at the very moment he faces a binding legislative finding.
We will not hand the ANC a symbolic political victory.
We will not hand the DA a credibility it has not earned.
We will hold the Premier accountable – properly, lawfully, relentlessly… not through theatre.
Accountability in ACTION!
I thank you.