Election 2021: DA and ActionSA go to twar on eve of polls

The gloves are off between the DA and ActionSA, but it is the Democratic Alliance that is doing most of the fighting this election.

A Twitter disagreement between DA Johannesburg mayoral candidate Mpho Phalatse and ActionSA’s Michael Beaumont became rather heated at one point following an earlier press conference where the DA hauled out four-year-old accusations against ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba.

The accusations stretch back to Mashaba’s time as mayor of Johannesburg when he was tasked to maintain the relationship with the EFF, forged by the party’s Federal Executive to secure itself the mayoral office instead of it going to the ANC.

The DA Deputy Federal Council Chair Thomas Walters said in a statement that Mashaba lobbied for the EFF during his mayoral tenure.

“He used his position as Johannesburg Mayor to lobby for the EFF to be given the mayorship of Metsimaholo. He proposed giving away a municipality to the red berets to manage in exchange for support somewhere else,” wrote the DA.

“It must be noted here that the DA did not bend to his will, and eventually he left.”

Notably, John Steenhuisen, who was parliamentary chief whip at the time, and Walters both served on the DA’s Federal decision-making body that would have had to gain EFF support to elect Mashaba as mayor and keep the ANC out of office in Johannesburg.

Was Mashaba doing the party’s bidding by maintaining the relationship with the ‘red berets’ for the DA to hold onto the mayorship? Walters says no.

“They never had a mandate to negotiate or attempt to lobby for formal power sharing arrangements. If they only had a mandate to deal with the EFF on a case-by-case basis, why did they try to push for formal power sharing agreements. It is because of this very abuse of a mandate that the DA has decided to emphatically state that there will not be any form of cooperation with the EFF.

“Unfortunately, love for the trappings of power led the current ActionSA leadership to try their luck!”

The DA said in a statement that it would not work with Malema’s party.

On Twitter, Phalane and Beaumont had a go at one another in the wake of the statement’s release. Beaumont accused Phalane of being disingenuous and reminded her that she once tweeted that Mashaba was “the world’s best mayor” coupled with the hashtag #handsoffmashaba prior to his exit from office and the DA.

In response, Phalane said that there was a “big difference between lying and not knowing. A lot of info’s coming out now which has me wondering what else I don’t know. Frankly I am disappointed! Yes, I rooted for Herman Mashaba but the evidence of the extend of his pandering to the EFF is too overwhelming to be ignored.”

In a closing Tweet, Beaumont told Phalane: “if you are explaining, you are losing.”

Beaumont told The Citizen that he finds the allegations curious given that the DA has been in a working relationship with the EFF in Tshwane for some time, too.

“But voters are tired of all this rhetoric. All the DA’s done is tell people why they shouldn’t vote for other parties, not why they should vote for them.”

Party leader Herman Mashaba laughed off the whole debacle saying he’d rather focus on positive campaigning.

Meanwhile, the DA tweeted and asked voters to “Imagine a SA without the DA. Expropriation without compensation will be law, load shedding, corruption and chaos will destroy what’s left. Only the DA is big enough to stop the ANC and the EFF. All top-performing municipalities are DA-run. On 1 November, don’t play with fire. #VoteDA”