VAT Increase and Tax Bracket Creep Are Scrapped!
ActionSA celebrates a major victory in our ongoing fight for a fair and responsible fiscal framework, that protects every South African from excessive taxation and worsening economic pressures.
On 1 April, ActionSA moved a recommendation in the report that ensured the proposed 0.5 percentage point increase in Value-Added Tax (VAT) for the 2025/26 financial year has been effectively scrapped, along with income tax bracket creep. Consequently, it will be the responsibility of Parliament, together with National Treasury, to urgently finalise alternative revenue and expenditure proposals within 30 days. This marks a critical step in protecting South Africans from regressive and unsustainable tax increases.
From the outset, ActionSA has firmly opposed the proposed VAT hike, recognising its disproportionate impact on lower- and middle-income households already struggling with the cost-of-living crisis. Furthermore, the failure to adjust personal income tax brackets in line with inflation would have subjected taxpayers to bracket creep—an unjust stealth tax that erodes disposable income.
Through our recommendations in the Finance Committee’s report, which will proceed to the National Assembly tomorrow, we have ensured that substitute revenue proposals and corresponding expenditure savings are considered to offset the R28 billion shortfall from scrapping the tax increases. This will ensure that government inefficiencies are addressed before any further burden is placed on South Africans.
ActionSA will always put South Africans first. As the only constructive opposition in Parliament, we will continue to engage in providing practical solutions that advance the best interests of South Africans at every turn.
ActionSA will remain focused on cutting wasteful expenditure, curbing corruption, and prioritising service delivery over reckless tax increases. We call on all stakeholders to contribute to sustainable and equitable revenue solutions that do not compromise the financial well-being of our citizens.
ActionSA Unveils Bold Legislative Actions to Overhaul the Cabinet and End Corruption
These overdue reforms should gain the support of all parties in Parliament who profess to want to cut wastage and fight corruption!
ActionSA announced the Cabinet Reform Package and the Zero-Tolerance Corruption Bill as our two bold legislative actions for 2025.
These proposed legislative reforms will mark the most significant overhaul of the Executive since 1994 and represent the most radical reform of key legislation aimed at combating corruption in South Africa.
ActionSA Expands Footprint in Limpopo
Three Political Parties Merge
Under the Growing ‘Green Umbrella’
Last week, we welcomed three new parties – Capricorn Independent Community Activists Forum (CICAF), Magošhi Swaragang Movement (MSM) and Democratic Union Party (DUP) – to our fast-growing Green Umbrella.
Over the next year, as we prepare for the 2026 Elections, we will continue to grow our reach through the Green Umbrella and bring more small parties into our fold and growing family.
ActionSA has 39 new Councillors who have seen it fit to agree to join us under our growing green umbrella.
We now have 145 public representatives across several municipalities in seven of the country’s nine provinces.
This forms part of the ActionSA Big Green Umbrella project which is assimilating small local-government oriented political parties around the country to contest under the ActionSA umbrella. Earlier in January ActionSA announced a further merger with the Forum 4 Service Delivery, an organisation with over 40 000 members, 80 000 votes in the last local government election and the 4th largest party in the North West. As a result of these efforts ActionSA has added 40 councillors to our ranks in municipalities where ActionSA will now have a local government foothold ahead of the 2026 local government election.
IEC must Provide Record Of
Decision On ANC Debt Settlement
We have filed an application with the North Gauteng High Court to compel the IEC to disclose its record of decision refusing to investigate the ANC’s R102 million debt settlement agreement with Ezulweni Investments.
This follows the IEC’s refusal to investigate the matter unless ActionSA provided them with the evidence – something the Party Funding Act requires of the IEC with its investigative powers.
Our application is a step towards enhancing accountability in political party funding. South Africans have the right to know who finances the parties they support, and it should be expected that the opposition would step in in to provide this information when electoral bodies fail to meet their obligations.
ActionSA Opposes Threats
to Party Funding Transparency
The Western Cape High Court recently heard a case that could severely impact South Africa’s multi-party democracy. The application by My Vote Counts seeks to force disclosure of all political donations, no matter how small, and reduce annual donation limits. While framed as a transparency measure, this move risks silencing new and emerging political parties, making private funding even more elusive and entrenching the status quo.
ActionSA strongly opposed this application – not because we reject transparency, but because true accountability lies in enforcing existing laws, not punishing lawful donors. Instead of focusing on disclosed contributions, efforts should be directed at the ANC’s undisclosed R102m debt settlement, the EFF’s unreported R70m stadium rally, and the MK Party’s questionable funding—all cases that ActionSA has formally challenged.
ActionSA will not allow law-abiding donors to be vilified for their contributions to multi-party democracy in South Africa while the elicit funding of political parties goes unchecked.
We remain committed to fair and transparent party funding while ensuring South Africans continue to have real political choices. Transparency should not come at the cost of democracy itself.
ActionSA Requests SAHRC Investigation and Urgent Parliamentary Hearing Into KZN Health Crisis
ActionSA’s request for a Human Rights Commission investigation is based on information received from healthcare workers, patients, and families affected by the medication shortage. This in conjunction with the shocking conditions observed at healthcare facilities we visited in KZN, including Eshowe Provincial Hospital, Benedictine Hospital, and Osindisweni Hospital.
We believes that the KZN Department of Health, led by MEC Nomagugu Simelane, has displayed shocking incompetence and a near-complete abdication of responsibility, both by blatantly denying the existence of the crisis and further failing to respond to the numerous concerns raised about the devastating impact it is having on communities.
ActionSA’ s post 2024 strategy is paying dividends through world class experts in Parliament, like Dr Kgosi Letlape, joining our teams in provinces who are identifying issues impacting South Africans in the most profound ways and publicly working to resolve these issues.
If you or someone you know has been affected by medication shortages, please take a few minutes to complete our questionnaire. Your responses will help us gather critical evidence for submission to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) so we can hold those responsible accountable and demand urgent action.
ActionSA in Parliament
SONA 2025: Promises About Economic Growth and Policy Reform Ring Hollow
ActionSA Parliamentary Leader Athol Trollip MP responds to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address.
The President’s speech was merely a repetition of empty promises, lacking any concrete steps to tackle our country’s most pressing issues or implement real economic reforms.
TSHWANE SUCCESS STORIES
Great work Mayor.
— VT (@VusiThembekwayo) February 27, 2025
👌🏾👌🏾👌🏾👌🏾👌🏾
Tshwane is in goods hands.. We're lead here 💚✊🏿.. Joburg can learn if they want to. #CityOfTshwane pic.twitter.com/oG5gZ4gUtA
— Maitse Moloi ® (@moloij) February 3, 2025
@nasiphim big up you're really captaining the ship in the direction of calm waves #CityOfTshwane in good hands 👏👏
— 🅿️a🅿️a Sinhle na Sethu🐦🩵 (@makuhani_psyfo) February 22, 2025
The African National Congress (ANC), Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and ActionSA coalition in Tshwane has been praised by residents, saying their fight against lack of service delivery is notable.#news #politics #cityofTshwane #AfricanNationalCongress #EconomicFreedomFighters… pic.twitter.com/ZjCWPEbSYQ
— IOL News (@IOL) January 22, 2025
Thank you @CityTshwane for making service delivery a priority.
— Yusuf Abramjee (@Abramjee) February 26, 2025
This is long overdue.
Residents do not have to beg councillors to do the basics. The basic needs to be taken care of.
Good to see things being done in many regions…and lots of work lies ahead. @nasiphim… https://t.co/zr1eXL2emw
I fully support this make #CityofTshwane clean AGAIN! https://t.co/wgHfMNhvDE
— Mhlalukwana (@Imsollyntuli) January 19, 2025
Polling places ActionSA as having doubled its 2024 support
Notwithstanding ActionSA’s ongoing scepticism with polls, especially those conducted by heavily conflicted pollsters, it is worth noting that a most recent Poll by the Social Research Foundation published last week reflecting ActionSA growth more than doubling its 2024 support. This reflects the efficacy of the programmes ActionSA have undertaken to respond to the disappointing 2024 result to generate a sense of momentum and growth behind the Party ahead of the 2026 local government election.
Nine years on, the families of the three Lily Mine victims – Yvonne Mnisi, Pretty Nkambule and Solomon Nyirenda – are still seeking justice and closure.
ActionSA President Herman Mashaba and Deputy President Dr Mbahare J. Kekana lead our 9th Commemoration of the Lily Mine Tragedy alongside the families of Pretty Nkambule, Yvonne Mnisi, and Solomon Nyirenda.
Leaders of various political parties as well as civic and religious groups gathered outside Lily Mine in Barberton, Mpumalanga to commemorate the anniversary of the Lily Mine Tragedy.
The commemoration, organised at the request of the Lily Mine victims’ families, aims to honour the lives of the victims and renew our calls for those responsible for the mine’s collapse to account.
Uniting the Opposition in South Africa
January 15th, 2025 marks the first of many steps that ActionSA is going to take, hand in hand with other like-minded political parties and leaders, to build the space for the rational opposition alternative in South Africa.
This follows within the political context of 70% of the seats in parliament now forming part of the GNU and the formation of the self-titled ‘progressive caucus’. With the GNU faltering under policy paralysis and the progressive caucus proving ineffective, it is becoming increasingly obvious that South Africa needs a growing rational centre.
This need is heightened when one considers that we are approaching a local government election and, notwithstanding the focus on national politics, the reality is that the greatest crises facing South Africans are of a local government nature. It is failures at this level that are seeing infrastructure collapse that is disrupting services, endangering the health of communities and destroying local economies.
It is in preparation for this vital election that ActionSA saw it fit to assess its approach at a time when so many South Africans are looking for an alternative but are confronted with too many organisations that appear to exist for reasons known more to themselves than to South Africans.
ActionSA merges with Forum 4 Service Delivery
The Forum 4 Service Delivery was a natural first choice for ActionSA. While not represented in Parliament, its makeup is entirely oriented to local government, as its name suggests. Without any resources of any kind, it managed to be the 10th and 16th largest political party in South Africa in 2016 and 2021 respectively while only contesting a limited number of municipalities. In both elections the Forum 4 Service Delivery won over 80 000 votes.
As it stands right now, the Forum 4 Service Delivery has 38 municipal seats in five provinces, which includes a Mayor, 8 MMCs and 8 Chairpersons of Municipal Public Accounts Committees. The organisation has over 42 000 members and has enjoyed relatively stable leadership over the past 10 years.
The Forum 4 Service Delivery brings with them an important capability that will greatly aid ActionSA’s efforts because it is an entity that is built on grass root engagement with communities. It has proven effective at this, including in rural communities, despite having very little resources. One wonders where this party would have been if they had enjoyed financial support.
Beyond these important capabilities, ActionSA is benefitting from a leader of integrity. Dr Kekana holds a Post graduate Diploma in Management from the University of the North-West, a Masters in Governance from the University of the Free State and a Doctorate in Political Science from UKZN. Most recently, he has added an LLB to this impressive list of qualifications.
ActionSA
Deputy President
Dr. Mbahare Kekana
Dr. Kekana is the founder of Forum 4 Service Delivery (F4SD) and is currently a Councillor and Municipal Public Accounts Chairperson at the Ngaka Modiri Molema District Municipality in the North West Province.
He has extensive academic and political background as well as professional experience in governance, public administration and human rights.
Dr Kekana is a politician driven by his convictions and not his own self-interest. His move to engage ActionSA sees him relinquish a 10-year investment of blood, sweat and tears to do what is right for his party and for the communities who look to him for leadership.
ActionSA in Tshwane Restores Clean Water Supply to Hammanskraal
ActionSA has always said that what South Africa needs, at different levels of government, are competent, appropriately qualified and experienced, as well as ethical leaders who place the interests of citizens and residents ahead of all else.
This is what the party pushed for in the Tshwane Metro, and what it finally managed to achieve through the appointment of game-changing Executive Mayor, Dr Nasiphi Moya, and the multiparty Mayoral Committee that she leads.
Tshwane’s announcement that Hammanskraal residents can now safely drink the water provided by Phase 1 of the Klipdrift Wastewater Treatment Plant emergency intervention project, is a significant milestone for the community. The project – a joint venture between Magalies Water, the National Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) and the City of Tshwane – will ensure the availability of clean, drinkable water to residents of Marokolong, Ramotse, Kekana Gardens, Babelegi Industrial, and Mandela Village. Future phases of the project will expand this to more communities in Hammanskraal.
“Today, I feel vindicated and am even prouder proud to be South African.”
