ActionSA to hold poll on coalitions direction

ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba says his party will conduct a two-day poll among its voters to advise it on whether to join the DA in Johannesburg and five other municipalities as coalition partners.

The party, which contested elections for the first time, is facing a dilemma of choosing between the DA and ANC as coalition partners in the economic hub after it secured just over 16% of votes while vote tallying continues.

Mashaba had said the party would not consider working with the ANC but that it would work with the DA.

Mashaba left his post as Johannesburg mayor and dumped the DA in 2019.

He said ActionSA had resorted to running a poll to get the views of its voters on which parties it had to go to bed with.

“Within the next few hours, we are going to run a 48-hour poll because we are a party built from engaging South Africans,” he said .

Mashaba said an ANC top six official approached him on the floor of the IEC’s Results Operation Centre (ROC) and asked that he and his party join forces with the governing party as coalition partner, which he said he rejected.

“I said I will call him,” he said.

While ANC national chairperson Gwede Mantashe and treasurer-general Paul Mashatile were the only male politicians at the ROC, Mashaba declined to reveal the identity of the ANC leader who sought backing from him.

ActionSA national chairperson Michael Beaumont said the party’s senate had now appointed a coalition negotiating team which included former DA provincial leader John Moodey who now heads ActionSA in the same role, former ANC MP and current ActionSA chairperson in KwaZulu-Natal Makhosi Khoza, former ANC MP and Western Cape party chair Vytjie Mentor as well as former Tshwane mayor Abel Tau.

“Those people possess a wealth of knowledge in putting people first and party second and being the go between ActionSA and other political parties,” he said.

Mashaba was however reluctant to reveal what preconditions the party would give the DA in relation to the ambitions for the mayoral post.

He said he had asked the party’s senate to put the question of his role in the running of the city at bay as none of the parties had spoken to him beside the informal approach by the ANC.

“I requested the senate that let’s not get into the nitty-gritties because no-one has made advances to us as yet. Let the political parties make advances and we will send our delegation to go and listen and come back. Let's discuss the details at that stage,” he said.