ANC approached ActionSA for coalition talks, says Mashaba
ACTIONSA president Herman Mashaba has revealed that one of the members of the ANC’s top six leadership structure approached him for possible coalition talks.
Mashaba was speaking at the Electoral Commission (IEC)’s national results operations centre in Tshwane on Wednesday.
However, the former Johannesburg mayor would not reveal the identity of the ANC leader who approached him.
“The only party that approached me informally is the ANC yesterday (Tuesday) and I’ve asked them to wait for my call, I’ll call them.
Video: Timothy Bernard/IOL Politics
“It would be stupidity. When you operate as a human being you have to really have integrity. Sometimes people speak to you in confidence. It was one of the top six, it was really informal because really I was not prepared to entertain the discussion. I said wait for my call and I can tell you that call will not come in 300 years,” he said.
Mashaba said ActionSA was the only party committed and capable of unseating the ANC.
”I want to make it clear, if I have got to do it a thousand times, I could do it a million times, a hundred million times. Fellow South Africans, ActionSA will not go into a coalition with the ANC, under no circumstances. Let us really be clear about that,” he said.
By lunchtime on Wednesday, ActionSA was the third-biggest party in the City of Johannesburg with 16.08%, behind the ANC and the DA, sitting at 31.65% and 29.11%, respectively.
Mashaba said his party had committed to consulting its supporters and all South Africans on which other parties to enter into coalitions with.
Mashaba also promised that ActionSA was going to run a 48-hour poll to ask which coalition proposals it should consider.
”If anyone wants to talk to us they must understand that us, as ActionSA, we want to run a pro-poor government. We are not a political party that is going to serve certain constituencies. Anyone who wants to talk to us, one of the core values of ActionSA is social justice.
“Social justice is one on the non-negotiables - you are going to commit to serve all communities. When you are in government you just don’t serve only your constituency, you’ve got to serve all the communities. If you want mayors of grass-cutting in Sandton, we are not going to be that political party.”
He also undertook that ActionSA was not going to go into a power-sharing agreement.
”In the event we don’t go into government, because we are not going to do it at all costs. We will do it where our mandate is going to serve society and not to serve political agendas and political parties,” Mashaba said.
ActionSA has established a team to lead negotiations for possible coalitions. The teams includes former ANC MPs Dr Makhosi Khoza, Vytjie Mentor, who are chairpersons of KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape, respectively, its Gauteng chairperson John Moody and Tshwane mayoral candidate Abel Tau.
– Political Bureau