The row over coalitions within ActionSA has led to Gauteng provincial chair Bongani Baloyi criticising party leader Herman Mashaba.

Baloyi announced that he was leaving the DA in December 2021 and subsequently joined ActionSA. 

Speaking to Daily Maverick, Baloyi explained that there are many gaps the party needs to fill if it wants to be a formidable political player.

“I think they need to work on their internal democracy and find the right way of dealing with issues and evolve from a one-man party into an institution,” he said.

On Monday, Baloyi said Mashaba had a meeting with him to express a trust deficit in their working relationship.

He was then removed from his position as provincial leader and asked to be ActionSA’s spokesperson. 

“Some people were lucky that they were taken through a process and some issues were ventilated. In my case I was just told that I was not trusted and that there was a bad relationship and I was moved from one place to another. 

JUST IN: ActionSA Gauteng Provincial Chairperson Bongani Baloyi formally tenders his resignation.

Baloyi will announce his future plans following his resignation from ActionSA. pic.twitter.com/e6vRhX0lFK

— Queenin Masuabi (@Queenin_M) March 13, 2023

“Saying such things to somebody and not giving them an opportunity to respond and tell them what the issues are is really an injustice. I felt that I would not accept moving to a position where I have to work with the same individuals on a day-to-day basis,” the former Midvaal Municipality mayor said.  

Baloyi claims the leadership had given the green light to begin coalition talks with the ANC. If they had reached the agreement it would have seen ActionSA gain power in Tshwane with Baloyi as mayor of the capital. The ANC would then have been voted in to lead in the City of Johannesburg while the EFF would have governed Ekurhuleni. However, Baloyi says Mashaba made a sudden U-turn on the matter. 

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“Just before we met with the other parties, we heard the party leader saying that some people are negotiating with the ANC behind his back and he might even resign if there is that possibility, which shocked all of us because the senate had met and he said he had endorsed whatever the senate had said. He needs to own up to the fact that he endorsed and approved this,” said Baloyi, who has not revealed any future political plans.

Read in Daily Maverick: “ActionSA to ‘root out’ wrongdoing by its members in City of Tshwane caucus”

However, party chairperson Michael Beaumont disputed these claims, saying they would not be giving Baloyi the opportunity to be party spokesperson if they were trying to silence him. 

Former DA Midvaal mayor Bongani Baloyi at an ActionSA press briefing in Johannesburg on 24 January 2022. (Photo: Gallo Images / Sharon Seretlo)

He added that Baloyi’s relationship with the party leadership went sour when they decided to pull the plug on negotiations. 

“He [Baloyi] only wants to be responsible for anything that is good in the party and everyone else, including Herman Mashaba and myself, are responsible for everything bad. How do you silence someone and then give them the party megaphone?”

ActionSA, which is not yet three years old, has lost several members, including its 2021 mayoral candidate for eThekwini, Makhosi Khoza, and Tshwane caucus leader Abel Tau. In August 2022, six members were booted out after it was suspected that they were in cahoots with the ANC. The party terminated Tshwane councillor Nkele Molapo’s membership this week over allegations that she had leaked confidential information about the party. DM