By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
@ActionSA.
ActionSA launched its inaugural manifesto at Old Park Station in Newtown, Johannesburg.
ActionSA president Herman Mashaba has promised voters his party will prioritise service delivery, fight corruption and deliver pro-poor governance if elected into power in the upcoming municipal elections.
Mashaba told thousands of his party’s supporters that ActionSA would show South Africans that failing governments can be removed and that services can be delivered to all citizens by having ethical leadership at the helm.
“It is from these cities that we will go to every South African across our country. We will ignite the hope that will see the change of government in 2024. It is from these cities that will start the process of fixing South Africa,” he said.
Mashaba said the party’s mayoral candidate for eThekwini, Makhozi Khoza, had “stood up as an ANC MP to [then-president] Jacob Zuma during the height of his power and publicly declared her intension to vote in favour of a motion of no confidence against him”.
He also credited another leader, Vytjie Mentor, as being “part of the reason the country has the State Capture Commission of Inquiry today because she stood up and exposed the infamous Guptas for offering up ministerial posts like shares in companies”.
Mashaba is standing as ActionSA’s mayoral candidate for the City of Johannesburg after his three-year stint as the metro’s mayor.
He said when he served the people of Johannesburg as mayor, he too went on a corruption-busting drive by establishing an anti-corruption unit “and appointed a former Scorpion to run it”.
ActionSA has set itself five priorities for fixing local government that include, among others, quality and reliable service delivery, appointing ethical and competent officials, safety and security, as well as addressing illegal immigration.
Improving municipalities’ finances
Free basic services
Extended operating hours
Youth unemployment
Illegal immigration
He added the party “as part of a people-centric approach, will begin the process of negotiating all Eskom supply areas that will be handed over to our municipalities”.
“Communities who are supplied directly by Eskom have been abused for far too long. They are residents of these municipalities and yet they are treated as second-class citizens by a failed state-owned enterprise while municipalities shrug their shoulders.
“As we speak right now, there are communities in Soweto that have been without electricity for months, among them people who are willing to pay but cannot even access electricity because whole communities are painted with the same brush which is against every principle in our Constitution.”