ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba told a media briefing in Parliament on Monday that his party was not controlled by outside forces and that their decisions were made based on the interests of all citizens. Picture: Henk Kruger/Independent Newspapers
ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba laughed off critics suggesting his party was a lapdog of the ANC-EFF coalition, following their fall-out with the DA in Tshwane.
The party’s councillor, Nasiphi Moya, was elected the capital city’s mayor after working with other parties to boot out the DA's Cilliers Brink.
Speaking to the media in Parliament on Monday, Mashaba said he had previously been called a lapdog of the ANC and an EFF mayor in the City of Johannesburg and that his party was labelled a “DA-lite”.
“I am not defined by slogans that people put on us. I really operate on the basis of what is quite practical in any given situation.”
Mashaba said his party operated in good faith and in the interests of all South Africans.
“Whether you like it or not, this is a numbers game and if you want to operate outside the mandate of voters, unfortunately you will be left on the sidelines of history.”
He said they acted to oust Brink because of a threat to destroy their party.
“They are the ones who started (this). We needed to defend ourselves.”
Mashaba said they had to make the first move against the DA mayor because there was a threat to destroy ActionSA, as had happened with Agang and Cope.
“It came to my attention that there was a plot to destroy our organization and I decided, ‘Herman this is what you did in 1978, attack first’. That is exactly what we did,” he said, referring to an incident when he met a gang that wanted to rob him in Bloemfontein decades ago.
“Here we are; we landed up with the leadership of the coalition government in the City of Tshwane, something I never planned, but it happened. We had to protect ourselves.
“We take decisions that will ultimately provide services to all residents but at the same time unite South Africa. We cannot accept corruption and we cannot accept a political party that will polarise South Africans along racial lines.”
He said Moya had at the weekend announced her executive mayoral team to turn the city around.
“We are leading the capital city of this country and put together a team that we are confident is to turn that city around.
“City of Tshwane is very important. What happened is very unfortunate, but we had to do everything in our power. We had the constitutional right to defend ourselves. That is exactly what we did.”
Mashaba expressed delight at the work done by the new mayor since her election.
He maintained that his party had approached the coalition talks in Tshwane with humility and negotiated the best deal.
“People think ActionSA is going to be controlled by forces outside. I can assure that we are going to lead a multi-party (grouping). Why we are going to succeed is because we have taken a view to run and operate with humility, honesty, ethical leadership and commitment to the people of Tshwane. We will follow the same model in other municipalities.”
He said his party was not chasing the mayorship in Joburg and Ekurhuleni.
“We will see how we can better participate and ensure we turn around those municipalities,” he said.
Cape Times