ActionSA dismisses protest threat by expelled party members – report

ActionSA is accusing former members of trying to tear the party apart.

This comes as a group of former ActionSA members plans to protest at the first sitting of the Johannesburg council in January.

The party was accused by some of its Soweto members of playing favourites when it selected proportional representation (PR) candidates.

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The group claimed that only members from an inner circle has made it to council. The Soweto chapter said this was unfair as it had delivered 16.5% of the ActionSA’s total votes in Johannesburg.

“The party’s proportional representative list is really unfair as the top 44 of the seats we have won in the November 2021 local government elections of South Africa, are only for those who have a close link to the President [Herman Mashaba],” the group said in a letter addressed to party leader Herman Mashaba.

Political plot

ActionSA’s national chairperson Michael Beaumont, however, told News24 that the members had missed the deadline to apply for the candidate selection process. 

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He also accused them of being part of a political plot to tarnish the party’s image. 

“These are former members. The party has exercised the provisions of its constitution to terminate their membership following behaviour that was deemed to be contrary to ActionSA’s values,” Beaumont said.

“This whole issue comes down to the fact that they did not get elected. Being a candidate does not guarantee that you will be elected.

“We obviously want more people to be elected, but the nature is some get in, and some do not.”

Bongani Baloyi

Just before Christmas, Mashaba said that he would try to get former Democratic Alliance (DA) member Bongani Baloyi to join his party.

The former mayor of Midvaal Local Municipality announced he had terminated his DA membership earlier in the month.

Mashaba said when he left the DA in 2019 to start his own party, he tried to recruit Baloyi to join ActionSA, but was unsuccessful at the time.

Now that Baloyi is no longer a DA member, Mashaba said he will again try to convince him to join ActionSA.

“It presents an opportunity for us to engage him and I hope that we succeed this time around,” Mashaba said in an interview with Newzroom Afrika.

Additional reporting by Hein Kaiser and Thapelo Lekabe