Campbell's 'refusal to visit township' reason for ActionSA pulling out of Ekurhuleni coalition

ActionSA has pulled out of the coalition in the City of Ekurhuleni after accusing the recently re-elected mayor of avoiding visiting townships. .

Last week the party supported the reinstatement of Ekurhuleni mayor Tania Campbell after she lost her position following a motion of no confidence.

During a media briefing in Wanderers on Monday, ActionSA’s head of governance, Dr Nasiphi Moya accused Campbell of refusing to go to black townships, which she said was something they did not stand for.

"This mayor refuses to go to Tsakane, refuses to go to Tembisa, which is something we’re not for," Moya said.

Currently, the DA, ActionSA, FF+, ACDP and IFP multi-party coalition government have a combined 96 seats out of a council with 240 seats.

Without ActionSA, the number drops to 78.

ActionSA national chairperson Michael Beaumont said the events of the last two weeks, which had negatively impacted on service delivery and instability, had been tumultuous and caused great concern to the residents of the municipality.

"When Ekurhuleni fell through the motion of no confidence, governance was reinstated with ActionSA.

"The return of the ANC is something we cannot tolerate… we have engaged the public… Survey conducted said we don’t want to work with the ANC.

"We won’t take up positions in the mayoral committee because we are dissatisfied with service delivery in the metro," Beaumont said.

To assess the situation in the metro, ActionSA initiated a public poll with more than 3,000 residents, which found that 62% of respondents felt the metro had gone in the wrong direction over the last year; 82% felt service delivery had gotten worse (50%) or stayed the same (32%); and 57% did not trust the coalition to continue governing.

Following her reinstatement as mayor last week, Campbell had to form a new mayoral committee. However, ActionSA, which had two MMCs in the previous Mayco, announced they would not take up any positions.

ActionSA’s Tlhogi Moseki was MMC for public safety while Charlotte Zitha served as health and social development MMC. 

Despite pulling out of the coalition, ActionSA’s Gauteng leader confirmed they would support the coalition and vote with them should a motion of no confidence against Campbell be tabled again.

This leaves Campbell in a very vulnerable position should the ANC and EFF finally reach a coalition agreement.

Last week, negotiations between the two parties collapsed after ANC Ekurhuleni regional chairperson Mzwandile Masina defied the provincial executive committee and fielded an ANC candidate instead of supporting and voting for EFF mayoral candidate Nkululeko Dunga.

For that, Masina was accused of bringing the party into disrepute and faces a possible suspension.