By Staff Writer
15:11:2021

On Saturday, ActionSA refused an EFF coalition proposal, arguing that it was antithetical to their founding to pushing the ruling ANC out of power.
The party further called on so-called ‘like-minded’ parties to partner for the cause of improving service delivery.

South Africa’s most recent poll saw hung coalitions emerge in 68 out of the 270 municipalities contested, a historic first in the country’s politics.

Speaking to Radio Islam International, Herman Mashaba, ActionSA’s head, reiterated the party’s senate vote against partnering with the ruling party, even though in Tshwane, for example, the DA was in power. He argued that its mandate was to unseat the ANC and that any coalition agreement would consider this.

Further, Mr Mashaba argued that local government was not about ideology but about service delivery and that like-minded parties needed to partner for this task, “Well, the other political parties we’ll be meeting hopefully today…
Uh, because obviously … we have different political parties because we’ve got different political ideologies. All the political parties. Let us look at the welfare and the future of our country. I know the local government has got absolutely nothing to do with that [ideology].”

ActionSA, he said, was not about positions but that the party required to be respected in coalition negotiations.

Mr Mashaba also reiterated that if coalition agreements were not concluded, then constitutionally, another election was required, which was unfortunately constitutional.

Regarding members complaining about ActionSA’s handling of the nomination lists, Mr Mashaba argued that they were now expelled from the party, especially since they went to the media instead of through internal channels.

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