Herman Mashaba’s ActionSA holds landmark candidate elections in Alex
ALEXANDRA –The elections serve as the preliminary step in the process to select candidates to represent the party in municipal elections, says ActionSA.
The ActionSA party of former City of Johannesburg Mayor Herman Mashaba has set a new benchmark when it comes to choosing its potential candidates for the upcoming local government elections in October.
For the very first time in the South African electoral space, potential candidates for a party will be chosen through an electoral system that is practised in the United States of America and known as the primaries,
“The new system allows voters to choose their preferred candidates to stand for the main elections as opposed to a current system where voters vote for the party of their choice which then imposes the candidates on them,” said ActionSA leader in Alexandra, Shadrack Mkhonto.
Mkhonto, who is a candidate in the primaries for Ward 105, said the primary elections were held across the entire Gauteng metropolitan areas. In the City of Johannesburg’s Region E, the primaries were held at East Bank Hall in Alexandra on June 26.
As the elections are internal, Mkhonto, a former DA PR councillor for Ward 105 who jumped ship to join the new kid on the block, said those nominated to stand in the primaries were ActionSA members only.
He added that all residents of Ward 105, be they ActionSA members or not, were free to participate in the primaries and elect a candidate of their choice who they trusted would stick to their mandate and deliver on his or her election manifesto.
The voting process was conducted by the IEC. Residents who changed wards before the primaries were not eligible to vote and would have to re-register with the IEC on July 17 and 18.
In Ward 105, Mkhonto stood alongside Sello Manyapye and Lungelwa Mali and the winner in the ward will be announced on July 9.
