MUNICIPAL POLITICS
‘Disingenuous and opportunistic’ — DA’s Tania Campbell hits back after ActionSA’s withdrawal in Ekurhuleni
ActionSA aims to thrive in the opposition benches after leaving the Ekurhuleni multiparty coalition due to what it called instability and glaring inequalities in the delivery of services to the metro’s more than four million residents.
ActionSA will continue to work with the DA in the Johannesburg and Tshwane metros despite pulling out of the Ekurhuleni minority coalition on the basis of instability and glaring inequalities in the delivery of services, the party’s national chairperson, Michael Beaumont, said on Monday.
This came after ActionSA voted in favour of Tania Campbell returning as executive mayor last week — weeks after a motion of no confidence booted her out of office.
On Monday during a media briefing, however, the party changed its tune, expressing no confidence in Campbell and unhappiness over a regression in the provision of services and a mounting number of accusations against her since she first ascended to power about a year ago.
Among the accusations levelled against Campbell is a failure to address service delivery concerns in townships while delivering in suburban areas.
The party has also accused Campbell and the DA of obstructing local structures and efforts to pass budgets, causing instability in the metro. As a result, the party said, it had decided to withdraw as a coalition partner and opted to become a constructive and robust opposition.
Campbell has not taken kindly to the allegations levelled against her and ActionSA’s departure from the coalition.
“ActionSA are free to leave the formal coalition should they wish to. We will continue to engage with them as we do with all parties represented in council,” she said through her spokesperson, Warren Gwilt.
‘Time to stop sniping’
Campbell said the party was disingenuous in its approach to leaving the coalition while being aware of the problems which the multiparty government had inherited.
“ActionSA comments are both opportunistic and disingenuous. It is time to stop sniping and to start working hard to fix the mess we have inherited.”
The move to withdraw comes after extensive debate at the party’s Senate meeting at the weekend and consultation with more than 3,000 residents through a public poll which asked residents to comment on the performance of the municipal government.
Beaumont said that following the poll, which pointed to dissatisfaction among residents, the party had to do serious soul-searching.
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“Sixty-two percent of the residents of Ekurhuleni felt that the city was moving in the wrong direction over the past few months. That is particularly concerning when you [take into consideration] that only 23% felt it was moving in the right direction.”
The party also asked residents whether things had become better, stayed the same or become worse over the past 12 months with the multiparty government.
“Fifty percent of residents felt it had gotten worse, 32% said it stayed the same. And only 16% felt that life had gotten better over the last 12 months. And I think of great concern to ActionSA was the fact that 57% of respondents did not feel that they trusted the government to continue, based on their experiences or service delivery,” said Beaumont.
“For that reason, some serious soul-searching needed to be conducted about our role within this multiparty coalition, because … it is one thing to say you want to keep the ANC out, but how do you intend to deliver the services? And the Senate deliberated on this matter at great length,” he said.
Departure no surprise
ActionSA’s departure from the coalition does not come as a surprise, as several councillors, including some from ActionSA, the ANC and EFF, have decried the instability in the metro.
ActionSA caucus leader Tlhogi Moseki said: “Things are really bad in Ekurhuleni. From time to time we were met with deaf ears. None of the issues that we have raised in that particular municipality through coalition partners [was] being attended to.”
The party’s provincial chairperson, Bongani Baloyi, highlighted the plight of residents in disadvantaged communities, whom he said Campbell ignored.
“We saw glaring inequalities of responses to challenges of service delivery, where in suburban areas when there’s an issue, within 48 hours [there is a response], but … when in townships, there’s a period where people might contest and be forced to go into those spaces.
“And it’s something we cannot tolerate as a government. I mean, we govern for everybody, not giving preference to others. So we supported the option, the proposal from the caucus to say, let’s consider something different.”
Baloyi said the party would no longer be part of the mayoral committee that is being reconstituted by the multiparty coalition following Campbell’s reinstatement as a mayor.
Instead, ActionSA will stand outside of the coalition in the hope of “influencing the coalition and the government in a much more robust manner, taking the role as a constructive opposition and seeing and ensuring that they deliver”.
In the same breath, Baloyi said ActionSA was not blind to the challenges that the multiparty government had inherited from the ANC, as the metro remained in a precarious position.
The city will hold a council meeting on 24 November at which an agenda will be delivered. DM
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Mashaba and his merry men have become flip-floppers too. He plays the political field as though it’s a game. Just when I thought he had what it takes, we see now that he is part of the circus of ANC and EFF clowns. His actions are no different to those of the PA in Jhb. As far as I’m concerned, he’s just a little dot on the horizon has touted himself as being a serious player in the 2024 elections. He’ll play a minor role really. The ANC and DA aren’t afraid of that ringmaster.
Well, the ANC and DA had better start to take note of them then. Fact is that they have a point – they are not the only ones who have these concerns. And the country does not belong to the DA and ANC; it belongs to the voters. As the Freedom Charter says, and it is more applicable than ever in today’s environment: “SA belongs to everyone who lives in it” and with that I have to emphasize that it says “every one” not “every political party”. You would do well to keep that in mind.
Straight out of the Malema playbook. Snipe from the sidelines without actually having to deliver anything. I agree wholeheartedly with Tania, ActionSA are being disingenuous.
Fixing the mess will be hard work. It’s easier to sit and snipe from the sidelines.
If the SSA were a competent outfit, I would assume that it has managed to engineer almost perfectly that the opposition parties bicker and fight among each other in exactly the way that suits the ANC best. It is past time that the opposition realizes that no one opposition party has any chance of being the dominant partner in SA opposition coalitions. Plus, that it is strategically stupid to take a narrow view of throwing your weight around in a local authority where you might be the most powerful, while ignoring that with your national hat on : you are a minor and your partners are minors but as a coalition you are powerful. We need something like the old UDF – disparate groups that unite in a common goal namely to end the ANC. Whether that is at the polls and/or by fracturing the ANC. It is overdue for Trevor Manuel (and a few others) to step up but it will first require some big egos in DA, ActionSA and others to step back.
I agree with you except that I do not know any over-sized egos in the DA.
Was this article about the glorious ASA (may they remain EFF buddies forever!! Rha! Rha! ) or about what is in the headline?
Of course many people will think things have “regressed”. The DA govt had to come in and implement national govt recommendations (such as cutting back on free electricity) that was supposed to have been implemented by the previous ANC administration! If people were to give the DA a stable platform and more time, they would see improvements as they have under Pappas in Howick.
Exactly.
It seems that the ANC has learnt the same lesson in Ekurhuleni that the DA had to learn in 2018 in Nelson Mandela Bay. The EFF simply can’t be trusted – and dare I say, it applies to the UDM also. But at the same time I also have some criticism for ActionSA. Why are these local government coalition arrangements done by the party decided at national level? The only constitutional way of deciding on coalitions at local level is when ALL the councillors of the party in that council agree with its’ provisions – the Constitutional Court has already made quite a number of verdicts to that effect. It is time that political parties in SA smell the coffee . . . that it is the people that are supposed to govern, and the only role of political parties in that is to give effect to that. Political parties do not have the right to decide for the voters; the Constitution says that that right belongs to the individual councillors/MPL’s/MP’s. SA is going to suffer instability as long as this does not change for the better.
Exactly correct
Just take note of what The DA and Pappas are achieving ,
Nogal with out ASA.
Why am I not surprised by the shenanigans of ActonSA. Running a Poll with there ‘members’ after the disaster of the last two months, just show up there childish behaviour. I have no political home presently, but will definitely not consider Herman and his Hollywood clowns.
Hollywood Bets is probably the wrong company to compare to Black like me with…
They don’t need Any Coalishen partners…
Take a page out of their book