Herman Mashaba, Mmusi Maimane and Songezo Zibi at Daily Maverick’s The Gathering 2025. (Photo: David Harrison) 
As the country prepared to vote on May 29, 2024, there were already discussions about whether smaller parties such as ActionSA and Rise Mzansi should unite, given their similar values and policies.
They had considered the idea for some time, but it never came to fruition with key differences among leaders getting in the way. In 2023, Build One SA (Bosa) officially launched and also went its own way.
As the country now heads to the 2026 local government elections, leaders of the three parties have confirmed that they are in talks about working together, possibly to form one centrist party.
Speaking at Daily Maverick’s flagship event held in Cape Town, on Thursday, The Gathering, the presidents of the three parties, Herman Mashaba, Mmusi Maimane and Rise Songezo Zibi appeared to embrace the idea.
Zibi, whose party secured just 0.42% of the total votes, said, “We have an obligation to work together, we don’t have a choice. The crisis is way too serious.”
The country is grappling with several major challenges, including high unemployment, unprecedented levels of crime and gender-based violence, while corruption and governance issues also continue to erode public trust.
“There isn’t a single political party in South Africa that has got the depth of talent needed to deal with a crisis that every community is dealing with, and it is important that we form a political centre where leaders, whether they are in civil society, activists in different communities, who are fighting the daily political battles,” Zibi said.
On Tuesday this week, IEC chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo said 34 new political parties had been registered since the 2024 elections, including 13 in the past month alone. This brings the number of registered parties to 472.
Maimane, whose party won just 0.41% of the vote, stressed the need to reduce the growing, “nonsensical” number of parties on the ballot.
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On a possible merger, Maimane said it was important to agree on a shared set of centrist values that could unite different groups. He also called for a more open and democratic process, one that encouraged citizen participation, held political parties accountable and ensured that the public had a meaningful voice in shaping national decisions.
The Good party is also reportedly talking to like-minded parties about a possible merger.
Maimane said: “I believe we most certainly can work together, and I think existentially speaking, the problem of South Africa is that if you polarise simply left or right, in that sense, you lose the centre. And so I think parties in the centre need to genuinely think about, how do they come together and work together?”
Ultimately, Maimane said it was possible. “I think sitting here, there’s [a] chemistry of ideas. The job that we’ve got to do is get it over the line.”
Mashaba, the oldest and biggest player of the three parties, was cautiously optimistic about a possible merger.
Just a few days ago, his deputy, Michael Beaumont, was adamant that ActionSA was against the idea.
Mashaba said one thing at least was clear for his party – that South Africans want fewer political parties.
“The question is, how do we put together a sustainable model? And obviously, up to now, we’ve really been engaging with our colleagues.” He said they were battling to find a model that worked “without actually complicating our own lives. That’s really where we are.”
In a moment that drew laughter from the audience of more than 1,500 people, Mashaba suggested that if collaboration were truly that simple, then even the DA and FF Plus could work together to show what’s possible.
“I think it’s important to really understand that … it cannot really be expected of us, [just] because we share the same ideas, ideals … without thinking of the modalities of really running that operation going forward,” Mashaba said. DM