Fellow South Africans, members of the media present here, Actioners here and those following proceedings on our digital platforms,
Dumelang,
Abusheni,
Nda,
Goeiemôre,
Good morning,
Thank you for making the time to gather here today, joining our Deputy President, Dr Kekana, other leaders, and me, as we welcome new members to our fast-growing Green Umbrella.
I must hasten to also thank and welcome the following new members from the Capricorn Independent Community Activists Forum (CICAF):
Both are current Councillors in the Polokwane Municipality.
– Mr Maropene Ramuruttha, Ward 06 Councillor in Polokwane
– Mr Shobane Mafona, Councillor from Molemolle Municipality
Also joining us and announced for the first time here today from the Magoshi Swaranang Movement, are serving Councillors:
– Mr Phauwe Mphahlele, Lepelle Nkumpi Municipality
– Ms Mavis Legaseane Mothapo, also from Polokwane Municipality
– Ms Enny Mogau Phasha, a sitting Councillor at Lepelle Municipality.
It doesn’t stop there, fellow Actioners. We also welcome the Democratic Union Party (DUP) led by Mr Tonic Manchidi, who have also joined our growing ‘Green Umbrella’!
We are also joined by the former Thabazimbi Residents Association member, Mr Sekgobela and Councillor Mkhari of F4SD from Giyani Municipality.
You will all agree with me that today is a good day for all of us.
It is not just a good day for those of us gathered here but also, importantly, for all the residents across several local governments who are represented by the councillors who have realized that we can only be stronger when uniting around a shared basket of values and ideals to hold hands and work together for an irreversible betterment of the lives of all our communities.
As I stand before you, today, it is with great pride that I tell you that ActionSA has 39 new Councillors – 34 from F4SD, announced in January, and an additional 5, who are being announced here in Limpopo today – who have seen it fit to agree joining us under ActionSA’s growing green umbrella.
By doing so, they also join our recently coined working slogan of “Service Deliverism”, for which Deputy President, Dr Kekana, must take much credit.
As a 4-year-old political party, we are immensely proud to have 145 public representatives spread across several municipalities in 7 Provinces, as follows:
– 134 Councillors
– 5 Members of Provincial Legislatures, and
– 6 Members of Parliament
All in all, we have official representation in 7 of the country’s 9 provinces.
Dr Kekana has brought with him a wave of recruitment ‘fresh air’ whose dynamism few will be able to ignore, to hide from, or to beat. It is also thanks to him that we gather here to agree on several things:
1. Our country is pained; that much is obvious.
2. Much of the pain is felt at local government level, which is the coal face of service delivery to all our people
3. There will not be healing unless we do everything possible to work together to take-over leadership at local government level and chart a new way, the Green Umbrella way.
Growing like this, even before we head to the next Local Government Elections in 2026, is just a dress rehearsal, but an important one and good sign of things to come.
Over the next year or so, as we prepare for the 2026 Local Government Elections, we must continue to grow our reach through the Green Umbrella and bring more small parties into our fold and growing family.
We must, however, do this for the right reasons; not for the mere vanity of seeing green all around us. Spreading the Green Umbrella must be considered only to be a means to an end. The end must be the improvement of lives for all our communities, irrespective of where they are located. But the Green Umbrella must be unstoppable!
Fellow Actioners, we’re on this drive to grow our reach to help us prepare the ground for a bigger takeover, through next year’s Local Government Elections, so that we shall be ready to touch the ground running, soon after elections, and demonstrate our determination to improve the living conditions of all our communities through ethical and consistent provision of basic services, including cleaner and safer living environments for everyone, black and white.
No community must be left behind. Those who are already better served/affluent will be encouraged to reach across and create partnerships – through a form of sisterhood to develop innovative ideas and citizenship exchanges with their poor counterparts.
Poor communities that have been neglected or otherwise poorly served will also be encouraged to play their part in enabling positive, best-practice, exchanges to be formed to achieve positive turn-rounds for everyone over time. This will also be good for social cohesion. We’re in it together, forever.
Frankly, as a leader, I am tired of having the same conversations repeatedly, year in and year out, election after election, without having anything to show of it.
You may have seen the work that is being led by ActionSA’s Tshwane Executive Mayor, Dr Nasiphi Moya, to turn things around in our nation’s capital. Working in almost perfect harmony with our coalition partners, Dr Moya leads a dream local government team whose work is being noticed even by her harshest sceptics and critics, some of whom cynically expected her to fail even before she started so that they could say: “You see, what else did you expect from these people?”
Well, she is proving them all wrong each passing day, each passing week. Frankly, her successes strengthen my resolve, my belief that all is not lost.
It is truly encouraging to see many of Dr. Moya’s former critics and sceptics from opposition parties, the media, commentators, and various Tshwane communities openly admit to being impressed by the work done by the municipal government she leads.
I am biased, of course, but with reason and proudly so.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, please do yourselves a favour and google “Dr. Nasiphi Moya” and see for yourselves the kind of work she and her team are doing in Tshwane.
Now, I deliberately mention Tshwane because I believe there is no reason we cannot bring the same dynamism and quality of leadership to other communities across the country.
But the work that must be done elsewhere in the country will not be done by Dr Moya. It will be led by you and other Actioners, Green Umbrella Councillors, old and new.
Failing is not an option.
Today is therefore not the start of a journey, ladies and gentlemen, but the continuation of one, under the Green Umbrella, to demonstrate to all our detractors that “failure and incompetence” are not what defines u and who we are.
Those of you who are already Councillors, please make us proud.
Those who still aspire to become Councillors, please do so for the right reason, to be part of the drive to bring back sanity to local government through the spirit of “service Deliverism” whose core aim is to serve; to serve by turning around many years of neglect, abuse, and criminal conduct at the expense of our communities.
I truly believe that we have it in ourselves to do this.
Let us therefore go out there to increase our numbers and other strategic partnerships, as well as to generate goodwill for the Green Umbrella through the quality of our engagement and work – throughout all our communities.
Thank you!
ActionSA Expands Footprint in Limpopo as Three Political Parties Merge Under the Growing ‘Green Umbrella’
Fellow South Africans, members of the media present here, Actioners here and those following proceedings on our digital platforms,
Dumelang,
Abusheni,
Nda,
Goeiemôre,
Good morning,
Thank you for making the time to gather here today, joining our Deputy President, Dr Kekana, other leaders, and me, as we welcome new members to our fast-growing Green Umbrella.
I must hasten to also thank and welcome the following new members from the Capricorn Independent Community Activists Forum (CICAF):
Both are current Councillors in the Polokwane Municipality.
– Mr Maropene Ramuruttha, Ward 06 Councillor in Polokwane
– Mr Shobane Mafona, Councillor from Molemolle Municipality
Also joining us and announced for the first time here today from the Magoshi Swaranang Movement, are serving Councillors:
– Mr Phauwe Mphahlele, Lepelle Nkumpi Municipality
– Ms Mavis Legaseane Mothapo, also from Polokwane Municipality
– Ms Enny Mogau Phasha, a sitting Councillor at Lepelle Municipality.
It doesn’t stop there, fellow Actioners. We also welcome the Democratic Union Party (DUP) led by Mr Tonic Manchidi, who have also joined our growing ‘Green Umbrella’!
We are also joined by the former Thabazimbi Residents Association member, Mr Sekgobela and Councillor Mkhari of F4SD from Giyani Municipality.
You will all agree with me that today is a good day for all of us.
It is not just a good day for those of us gathered here but also, importantly, for all the residents across several local governments who are represented by the councillors who have realized that we can only be stronger when uniting around a shared basket of values and ideals to hold hands and work together for an irreversible betterment of the lives of all our communities.
As I stand before you, today, it is with great pride that I tell you that ActionSA has 39 new Councillors – 34 from F4SD, announced in January, and an additional 5, who are being announced here in Limpopo today – who have seen it fit to agree joining us under ActionSA’s growing green umbrella.
By doing so, they also join our recently coined working slogan of “Service Deliverism”, for which Deputy President, Dr Kekana, must take much credit.
As a 4-year-old political party, we are immensely proud to have 145 public representatives spread across several municipalities in 7 Provinces, as follows:
– 134 Councillors
– 5 Members of Provincial Legislatures, and
– 6 Members of Parliament
All in all, we have official representation in 7 of the country’s 9 provinces.
Dr Kekana has brought with him a wave of recruitment ‘fresh air’ whose dynamism few will be able to ignore, to hide from, or to beat. It is also thanks to him that we gather here to agree on several things:
1. Our country is pained; that much is obvious.
2. Much of the pain is felt at local government level, which is the coal face of service delivery to all our people
3. There will not be healing unless we do everything possible to work together to take-over leadership at local government level and chart a new way, the Green Umbrella way.
Growing like this, even before we head to the next Local Government Elections in 2026, is just a dress rehearsal, but an important one and good sign of things to come.
Over the next year or so, as we prepare for the 2026 Local Government Elections, we must continue to grow our reach through the Green Umbrella and bring more small parties into our fold and growing family.
We must, however, do this for the right reasons; not for the mere vanity of seeing green all around us. Spreading the Green Umbrella must be considered only to be a means to an end. The end must be the improvement of lives for all our communities, irrespective of where they are located. But the Green Umbrella must be unstoppable!
Fellow Actioners, we’re on this drive to grow our reach to help us prepare the ground for a bigger takeover, through next year’s Local Government Elections, so that we shall be ready to touch the ground running, soon after elections, and demonstrate our determination to improve the living conditions of all our communities through ethical and consistent provision of basic services, including cleaner and safer living environments for everyone, black and white.
No community must be left behind. Those who are already better served/affluent will be encouraged to reach across and create partnerships – through a form of sisterhood to develop innovative ideas and citizenship exchanges with their poor counterparts.
Poor communities that have been neglected or otherwise poorly served will also be encouraged to play their part in enabling positive, best-practice, exchanges to be formed to achieve positive turn-rounds for everyone over time. This will also be good for social cohesion. We’re in it together, forever.
Frankly, as a leader, I am tired of having the same conversations repeatedly, year in and year out, election after election, without having anything to show of it.
You may have seen the work that is being led by ActionSA’s Tshwane Executive Mayor, Dr Nasiphi Moya, to turn things around in our nation’s capital. Working in almost perfect harmony with our coalition partners, Dr Moya leads a dream local government team whose work is being noticed even by her harshest sceptics and critics, some of whom cynically expected her to fail even before she started so that they could say: “You see, what else did you expect from these people?”
Well, she is proving them all wrong each passing day, each passing week. Frankly, her successes strengthen my resolve, my belief that all is not lost.
It is truly encouraging to see many of Dr. Moya’s former critics and sceptics from opposition parties, the media, commentators, and various Tshwane communities openly admit to being impressed by the work done by the municipal government she leads.
I am biased, of course, but with reason and proudly so.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, please do yourselves a favour and google “Dr. Nasiphi Moya” and see for yourselves the kind of work she and her team are doing in Tshwane.
Now, I deliberately mention Tshwane because I believe there is no reason we cannot bring the same dynamism and quality of leadership to other communities across the country.
But the work that must be done elsewhere in the country will not be done by Dr Moya. It will be led by you and other Actioners, Green Umbrella Councillors, old and new.
Failing is not an option.
Today is therefore not the start of a journey, ladies and gentlemen, but the continuation of one, under the Green Umbrella, to demonstrate to all our detractors that “failure and incompetence” are not what defines u and who we are.
Those of you who are already Councillors, please make us proud.
Those who still aspire to become Councillors, please do so for the right reason, to be part of the drive to bring back sanity to local government through the spirit of “service Deliverism” whose core aim is to serve; to serve by turning around many years of neglect, abuse, and criminal conduct at the expense of our communities.
I truly believe that we have it in ourselves to do this.
Let us therefore go out there to increase our numbers and other strategic partnerships, as well as to generate goodwill for the Green Umbrella through the quality of our engagement and work – throughout all our communities.
Thank you!