Mashaba says ActionSA is done with Brink, DA in Tshwane

ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba snubbed City of Tshwane mayor Cilliers Brink’s plea for the party to stay and stabilise the city’s coalition as another motion of no confidence was looming at the council meeting today.

Brink tried to reach out to ActionSA during the coalition management committee briefing yesterday – with no success.

Mashaba said his party would not engage with the DA.

ActionSA abandons DA in Tshwane

“The DA is history in my life because I have found it difficult to trust them any longer. I am not prepared to wait for them to kill me first,” he said.

“ActionSA has reached the stage where our ground structure has had more than enough of them.

“Right now, we are officially doing a review of removing Brink and we are not apologising to anyone about it,” he said.

Mashaba highlighted the call for the removal of Randall Williams as mayor 18 months ago “because he refused to cooperate with us on the Hammanskraal water treatment plant tender to Edwin Sodi”.

“The final point came when he tried to bring a R26-billion tender to the council with ActionSA voting against for two substations.

“At the time, Randall still said the DA had negotiated with the ANC and EFF to vote with them.

“But the ANC and EFF threw them under the bus and voted with us against the unsolicited bid,” Mashaba said.

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Hammanskraal tender was found illegal

“They were bringing an R26 billion deal for a company associated with the DA to tender for two of the substations. It was something they were working on before we came into government with them.”

In 2022, ActionSA’s lawyers looked at the tender and found it illegal, Mashaba said.

“We made it clear to the DA we would not vote for it because it was unconstitutional, illegal and fraud and we couldn’t support it.

“Then they went to the ANC and EFF behind our back.”

Mashaba said the DA campaigned to blame ActionSA for being an uncooperative partner.

“I am telling you now, if you govern with ActionSA, don’t expect us to cover corruption.”

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Brink can only speculate on reason for fallout

Yesterday, during the multiparty coalition management committee briefing to update on the status of the coalition, Brink said he could only speculate what led to the fallout between the two parties.

“Nothing has been registered in the structures of the coalition. I refer to all of the disputes we have cleared.

“We have a good working relationship with the mayoral committee. I value the contributions by deputy mayor Nasiphi Moya, as I do her colleague, Hans Coetzee,” he said.

Brink said ActionSA used the motion of no confidence tabled last month as an opportunistic plot to disrupt the progress made by the coalition government.

Comments made by Mashaba on social media about the Tshwane coalition didn’t reflect anything that was said at a local level, he said.

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“I am still keen to meet with ActionSA; I want to save the progress made.

“This is not about me; this is not about the chain.

“This is about preserving the progress we have made and all the people we have brought into management positions and the key decisions about Rooiwal and Hammanskraal water – it’s about that.

“And if there is any chance to persuade ActionSA not to open up and let the EFF and ANC into government, I will take that,” Brink said.

“Let’s meet and find out what’s happening and what we can fix about this coalition.”

The other coalition partners, including the DA, FF Plus and IFP, expressed their support to the coalition for the no confidence motion.