Douglas Gibson.
Douglas Gibson
The threatened takeover of Tshwane by the ANC and EFF, made possible by ActionSA, has been big political news recently and readers will forgive me for returning to the subject.
Herman Mashaba prides himself on being a businessman before he is a politician. His actions and statements show decisively why not all businessmen are suited to politics. His party has not held a congress to elect the leadership. This means that he calls all the shots: he appointed himself and every other person holding a senior leadership position.
That is not how democratic parties work. Unelected leaders, because everyone is beholden to them for their jobs, salaries and public representative status, are inclined to get above themselves. Infallibility, silly moves and personal issues are almost inevitable.
In a Sunday newspaper, Mashaba stated that he chooses the EFF rather than the DA as coalition partners, forgetting a few facts. He has conveniently forgotten that his DA-led Johannesburg mayoral administration was losing the party’s confidence and, more particularly, of his own caucus members. The reason then was that he was perceived as being too close to the EFF, and giving in to them too often.
He has forgotten that in Nelson Mandela Bay, the DA mayor, Athol Trollip, was unseated by the EFF. Mashaba’s big friend, Julius Malema, stated publicly: “We are cutting the throat of the white man.” I wonder if Trollip, who is a decent sort of chap, approves of Mashaba’s hatred of the DA and his preference for the EFF.
I am prepared to bet that Trollip was not properly consulted about the proposed Tshwane coalition; he certainly has not forgotten the naked racism displayed by Malema and the EFF towards himself. Trollip had to step in and lead ActionSA in Parliament when Mashaba let down his voters and decided not to take up his seat. Mashaba chose to “build structures” of ActionSA, rather than serve his voters in terms of the mandate he received, pathetically small as it was.
The DA-led opposition coalition, popularly called the “Moonshot Pact”, aimed to become strong enough to form a government. The DA spent the whole campaign telling voters that its main aim was to prevent a “Doomsday coalition” consisting of the ANC, EFF and uMkhonto weSizwe Party.
ActionSA, a member of the pact, spent the whole election attacking the DA. It failed to recognise that it owed some loyalty to its partner in the pact. The result was a remarkable repudiation by the voters of his party and its garrulous spokesperson, Michael Beaumont.
ActionSA lost more than half of the votes it polled in the municipal election. In Tshwane, for example, it polled 62 502 votes in 2022 and only 36 708 in 2024. Johannesburg was much more of a disaster. And nationally, ActionSA emerged from the election as a 1.19% party, the eighth largest in Parliament, with only six MPs.
If Mashaba proceeds with his plan to join the EFF, the price for which would be an ActionSA mayor, with little or no clout, because the ANC and EFF would call the tune, his leadership would be doomed. Before long, he would have to make way for someone else, perhaps Trollip, John Moodie or even Michael Beaumont, all of them DA old boys.
Mashaba would be blamed for the political suicide he was contemplating, which would lead to the disappearance of ActionSA as a viable political party. Opposition voters would reject him and his party even more decisively than they did in the general election. SA is watching a looming ActionSA disaster.
Gibson is a former opposition chief whip and former ambassador to Thailand.
The Star