ActionSA plans to sue former Tshwane human settlements MMC Abel Tau for defamation after he alleged the party’s head of security tried to lure him into getting tenders for companies affiliated to him and party leader Herman Mashaba’s niece.

Tau, a former ActionSA Tshwane caucus leader who was fired from the party in November last year, made the corruption allegations on Thursday.

Speaking to SowetanLIVE's sister publication TimesLIVE, he alleged that during his tenure as the human settlement MCC last year, he was pressured by Bafana Mthimkhulu to give him the department’s database for tenders.

“He said the companies would be marked and they would not be directly under him, but would be in other people’s names,” he said. 

Tau said he tried to report the matter within the party.

“I did this when I felt the pressure was getting too much because he was on my case about this thing, but nothing was done.”

Tau said he could not confidently say Mashaba knew what the head of security was allegedly trying to persuade him to do.

“This thing was boring for me because as a party we had gone out to say that we will bust corruption, but here is a man who was like an adviser to the president [Mashaba] doing this,” said Tau. 

“I decided to record these conversations because I knew I would have a problem with the party after not doing what he wanted. Mthimkhulu is very close to the leader of the party and he boasts about this.

“My fallout with the party started when I was forced to resign as a caucus leader [in March 2022].”

He said his ousting was a political plot members of ActionSA were part of.

ActionSA chairperson Michael Beaumont said: “We ... note that these allegations, which are serious and criminal in nature, are strikingly without merit and as such we will be filing a defamation suit against Mr Tau for his reckless and irresponsible allegations.”

Beaumont said Tau was bitter after being fired.

“While Tau would like to suggest his misfortunes arise from a conspiracy against him, the reality is that an independent disciplinary panel found him guilty of abusing his political position in the pursuit of his personal intimate relationships. As much as Tau may wish to assert a conspiracy against him, he and he alone is responsible for his departure from ActionSA.”