Po l i t i c s

politics GETTING IN ON THE AC T ION

The success of ActionSA in the local government elections caught many off guard, and its su bs e q u e n t surprise vote (with the EFF) for DA mayoral candidates in Gautenghas given it additional political heft

Carien du Plessis

ormer president Jacob Zuma’s ill-

Fconceived, if short-lived, decision to put David Des van Rooyen in the finance ministry six years ago had at least one unintended consequence: it pushed Herman Mashaba properly into p o l it ic s .

It was either that, or he’d have ended up a drunkard or in a mental institution, the ActionSA leader quips, reminiscing about S A’s“weekend special”finance minister.

It was, he says, this final straw that set him onhis current career trajectory. He’d already resigned as chairof the Free Market Foundation and become a card-carrying DA member. But in short order he decided he’d run for office —a move that would set him up for an acrimonious split from the opposition party in 2019, and ultimately lead him to launch ActionSA in August last year.

“I’m a real accidental politician,”Ma s h a b a says, echoing the title of his biography (written by ActionSAnational chairMic h a e l Beaumont). “It ’ssomething I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would do.”

Just over a year after its launch, Ac t io nSA secured sufficient votes in the six municipalities it contested in the local government e le c t io n s to become the sixth-largest party in SA , with 2.36% of the vote.

In Gauteng, ActionSA managed a big enough share of a very fractured vote in the metros (16.05% in Joburg, 6.6% in Ekurhuleni and 8.64% in Tshwane) to hold some sway— thought not quite enough to return Mashaba to the mayoral chair in Joburg, as he may have hoped.

Now, after Ma s h a b a at the 11th hour con v i nce d the EFF to vote with ActionSA for DA mayors in the three metros, the parties h av e been thrashing out positions.

Mashaba himself has not been part of the talks, he says, because “if I don’t agree with something I don’t keep quiet”.

Instead, Beaumont has represented Ac t io nSA, and it’s said the party w a nt e d key positions on the mayoral committees — such as the finance portfolios —for itself and the EFF.

However, the DA, with the larger number of seats,has been unyielding. The party has accused ActionSA of trying to punch above its weight in the talks, but Mashaba attributes this to his former colleagues “[allowing] t he i r hatred of me to cloud their common sense”.

In Mashaba’s telling, his days as DA mayor started on a reluctant note in 2016; the businessman almost lost his nerve.

“I learnt through the media the EFF didn’t want me,”he said. “I wasn’t involved in the ne go t i at io n s .”

He says he felt the DA was forcing him to work with the EFF and he told his wife, Connie, he was being set up. “My wife said: ‘Many people voted for you and not the DA. You can’t let people down.’”That was how he eventually relented.

In 2019, after Helen Zille’s election as DA federal council chair, Mashaba was pushed to resign. The DA claimed he had to go because “he became the EFF’s mayor”a nd failed to act against illegal land invasions. Hi s version is that the DA wanted the municipality “to cut grass in Sandton”rather than give projects to poor communities.

There were also, of course, his pronouncements against undocumented immigrants and unlicensed businesses —t ho u g h these didn’t seem to bother the DA too much. He brushes off the accusations of xenophobia, sayinghe is simply in favour of stricter law enforcement.

For now, Mashaba is willing to serve as an “ordinary councillor”for Joburg as he builds ActionSA further.

In political terms, this means h e’st h i n k i ng in 2½-year instalments—to thegeneral elections in 2024,rather than the end of the fiveyear local government term.

To that end, he’srecruiting “s t r o ng provincial chairpersons to be premier cand id at e s ”, and he mentions, in confidence, the name of the party’s new North West leader, to be made publicon December 18.

With both the ANC and DA on a downward trajectory, and with the exponential growth of race-centred parties such as the EFF and Freedom Front Plus, the businessminded Black Like Me founder and “unapologetic capitalist”could step into the gap as a leader with cross-racial appeal.

He believes the voting patterns in the metros in the November 1 elections proved this.

“I hate racism with a deep heart,”he tells the FM. “I’m 62and I spent half my life under the apartheid system, but I took a decision at the age of 22 to free myself, and had an opportunity. This freedom, I got it by working with all South Africans.”

It ’s this ability to work across social divisions that underscored his business success, the Hammanskraal-born Sandtonite claims.

Before he discovered politics, Mashaba was seriously considering emigration —per haps to Florida in the US, or Rwanda. The latter is well-run, but his concern was “what happens to life beyond [President] Paul Kagame”, a man he considers a “g r e at le a de r ”.

But while he believes in firm leadership, he says he also puts great store in democracy and the co n s t it u t io n .

“We are a special people, but it is unfortunate that we are let down by our leaders h ip ,”he says. “Let ’s take personal responsibility to correct it.” x

Herman Mashaba: Willing to serve as an ordinary councillor for Joburg as he builds ActionSA