CILLIERS BRINK

Just as we are starting to make progress, ActionSA is taking a sledgehammer to the multiparty coalition in the City of Tshwane.

Whatever so-called “review” the party is undertaking, Herman Mashaba (the guy who pays the bills and has never had to face an elective congress) has made up his mind.

He is determined to drive the DA out of power wherever he finds us, even if it means collapsing a coalition for which his party is jointly responsible and placing the EFF at the centre of power.

Flush from his deal with the ANC in Johannesburg, he wants to do the same in the capital city.

But Tshwane isn’t Johannesburg. If ActionSA’s seats in the City of Tshwane council were added to the ANC’s, it would not add up to a majority. In order to govern, ActionSA would need the EFF.

The mayor of that arrangement, whoever they are, would depend on the red berets to pass budgets, raise long-term loans, make senior management appointments and take action against misconduct as well as the misspending of public money. It is hard to imagine a better business prospect for the EFF, especially in light of the City’s improved finances.

In exchange for shielding bad officials and advancing bad service providers, the party would be able to levy protection fees – or at least try. This is, after all, what allegedly happened with VBS Bank.

To justify its wanton act of destruction and treachery, ActionSA would claim that Tshwane’s townships had been neglected under a DA mayor, as if ActionSA hadn’t been part of the government in Tshwane since 2021.

The party holds the deputy mayorship and is responsible for the mayoral committee portfolios of social development, economic development and city planning. Its members of the mayoral committee also oversee service delivery in the townships of Soshanguve, Mabopane, Winterveldt and Hammanskraal. It is not clear how bringing the EFF into the government would improve ActionSA’s performance or the government’s concern for the poor and the vulnerable.

Let’s ask the pensioners who entrusted their savings to VBS.

While blaming the DA for how badly the City is allegedly doing, ActionSA has eagerly claimed credit for the City’s successes. This includes progress in getting clean water in the taps of the people of Hammanskraal, acting against the misspending of public money and improving public lighting and community facilities in townships. In fact, the party pointed to some of the achievements in July 2024 when it rejected the ANC’s first motion of no confidence against me. Standing with coalition partners, ActionSA described the motion as “opportunistic”.

The ANC withdrew the motion, saying that it needed more time to canvass support.

A week or so later, photos circulated on social media, of Mashaba meeting the proposer of the motion, ANC councillor Frans Boshielo. The meeting must have made an impression on Mashaba, because soon afterwards he launched a campaign of public attacks on the coalition.

I asked my ActionSA counterpart, Nasiphi Moya, the deputy mayor, what was going on. When ActionSA’s deal with the ANC in Johannesburg was announced, she assured me that it would not threaten the City of Tshwane coalition. Now she told me that her party had decided to review its position in the coalition following an approach from the ANC and that the directive came from the national leadership.

I then reached out to Michael Beaumont, ActionSA’s national chairperson, and the person to whom Mashaba has more or less delegated the running of the party’s management of coalitions.

Beaumont suggested that we meet; an offer I immediately accepted. The next day, ActionSA informed our coalition management committee that until Beaumont and I had had our meeting, the party would not participate in a scheduled joint press conference.

This made the Beaumont meeting all the more pressing, as the coalition had to face yet another ANC-sponsored motion of no confidence. But despite repeated efforts on my part, Beaumont never made himself available for the meeting.

In hindsight, all Beaumont was doing was stringing his coalition partners along while negotiating a deal with our opponents. I also have it on good authority that while Beaumont was dodging me, he did approach Gauteng Freedom Front Plus leaders to persuade the party to join a “unity government” with the ANC.

The DA went to court to stop the motion of no confidence on procedural grounds and we obtained an assurance from the Speaker that the motion would not serve. But if the motion had served, I have no doubt that ActionSA would have supported it under cover of a secret ballot. That would have given the party a chance to break the coalition without having to explain itself.

Of course, service delivery in Tshwane is not perfect, but we are making progress. If ActionSA was motivated by the best interests of Tshwane residents, it would have allowed its City of Tshwane councillors to continue with the work.

But ActionSA’s turn in the City has nothing to do with service delivery. It is a response to the party’s poor showing in the 2024 general election, which Mashaba blames on the DA (like much else in his political life).

He fears that if the City of Tshwane coalition succeeded under a DA mayor, voters would not credit ActionSA in the 2026 general election. And so, he would rather enthrone the EFF as kingmakers. We will do everything to stop that from happening.

Alderman Brink is the executive mayor of Tshwane.

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