‘Since when did the DA promote our members?’ – Mashaba speaks on politician ditching ActionSA for DA

ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba has spoken out on a member of his party jumping ship for the DA.

It was announced on Monday that Councillor Novina Pillay had joined the DA, after the party had teased the recruitment of a “senior member” from ActionSA.

Speaking to The Citizen, Mashaba questioned the seniority of the councillor.

“I am surprised that the DA is promoting people in ActionSA as being senior. Since when did the DA promote people to become senior? The DA is in no position to decide the seniority of our members.”

Mashaba claimed the DA was scared of the party and campaigned to delegitimise them, while National Chairperson Michael Beaumont labelled the move as “desperate”

“Pillay has never held any office in ActionSA and has served only as a Councillor. While ActionSA wishes her well in the DA, the claim that Pillay is a senior leader in ActionSA is laughable.”

Last month The Citizen reported that ActionSA’s Tshwane regional structures were disbanded and its leadership dissolved due to internal squabbles.

“The PEC has accepted the decision by the Tshwane Regional Executive Committee to dissolve itself as a structure, as per their prior correspondence with the president, national chairperson and myself on 14 November 2024,” Gauteng Provincial Chairperson, Funzi Ngobeni, said in a memo detailing the decision.

ActionSA struggling

ActionSA has experienced further turbulence, with a number of members quitting the party.

In August, 22 ActionSA provincial executive committee (PEC) members deserted the party, led by Herman Mashaba.

ALSO READ: ActionSA in trouble as 22 leaders leave party

Instead of entertaining the aggrieved members, Mashaba preferred to stick with his self-recruited ally and a traditional leader, the party’s North West chair Kwena Mangope, who is the son of the late Bophuthatswana leader, Lucas Mangope.

‘Dictatorial leadership’

The PEC members, who resigned with immediate effect, cited Mangope’s “dictatorial” leadership style.

“We are doing so as individuals and as a collective. Moreover, we will also be encouraging ordinary members who fall under the banner of Save North West Campaign to do the same,” they said in a statement.

“The circumstances that have led to us resigning are due to the party’s intention to purge and threaten members of this group with notices/letters to invoke certain clauses of the party’s interim constitution to terminate our membership.”

After the group complained about Mangope, they were allegedly threatened with disciplinary action by the party’s senate, the highest decision-making body between party national congresses.

They were given a few hours to state why no action should be taken against them. But the members decided to resign immediately.

ActionSA members return

However, in October, more than 70 community activists from across Gauteng, most notably from Soweto, who had left the party, returned.

Among the returning activists were members previously dismissed for past conduct and others who had left the party “out of frustration for various reasons”, said the party.

In response to their concerns, Mashaba reiterated his intention to recognise hard workers “appropriately”, with some potentially being deployed to serve their communities in local government.

ALSO READ: WATCH: ‘I’ve never been more wrong’: How Zille underestimated Zuma and the MK Party

Additional reporting by Itumeleng Mafisa and Eric Mthobeli Naki.