Mashaba merger moves for 2026 municipal elections…

ActionSA has made the first move to unite the opposition ahead of municipal elections next year. Herman Mashaba's ActionSA party has merged with The Forum 4 Service Delivery, and he has confirmed that it is also in informal talks with BOSA and Rize Mzansi. "…and we've agreed to let us conclude this one first and then we can then start formal discussions with them." Mashaba says ActionSA has identified "massive opportunities throughout the country, more especially at local government level; a lot of community-based organisations register as political parties. They're sitting with five, 10 councillors and so forth. So, I'm busy negotiating to get as many as possible to do the same kind of an arrangement that we did with The Forum 4 Service Delivery." The first merger has gained ActionSA 38 councillors in 14 municipalities in five provinces overnight. Mashaba also gives an update on the strides made with service delivery under the new ActionSA Mayor in Tshwane..Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here..The seventh BizNews Conference, BNC#7, is to be held in Hermanus from March 11 to 13, 2025. The 2025 BizNews Conference is designed to provide an excellent opportunity for members of the BizNews community to interact directly with the keynote speakers, old (and new) friends from previous BNC events – and to interact with members of the BizNews team. Register for BNC#7 here..If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here.Watch here.Listen here.Edited transcript of the interview ___STEADY_PAYWALL___.Chris Steyn (00:01.9).ActionSA has made the first move to unite the opposition ahead of municipal elections next year. We speak to Mr. Herman Mashaba, whose ActionSA party has just merged with The Forum 4 Service Delivery. Welcome, Sir..Herman Mashaba (00:18.887).Thank you so much, Chris. Always appreciate the opportunity..Chris Steyn (00:24.014).Sir, how many municipality or how many municipal seats have you gained with this merger?.Herman Mashaba (00:31.542).Well, just to really give you a sense of the magnitude and the significance of this is that when the President of or the leader of Forum for Service Delivery approached me in late September. You know, I invited him to my office, I thought this was a dream. And I said, let's pursue it. And here is it. Finalised. Obviously took months of heavy discussions, including obviously making sure that we agree on Forum 4 Service Delivery coming into ActionSA, and as you heard today, we now as a party Senate last week took a decision with our interim Constitution to have a position of Deputy President. I'm excited now there's a deputy president of our party. The party does not have to rely solely on Herman Mashaba – and a fantastic human being. .This party, Chris, it's represented in five provinces with 38 councillors and 14 municipalities. So overnight, ActionSA has got additional 38 councillors represented in 14 municipalities in five provinces. I mean, it's something that honestly I think on paper would, or if I talk to you right now, wouldn't make sense, but it is real. And we've allowed this 38 councillors to have a dual membership so that they don't lose their seats. .So between now and the elections, as far as IEC is concerned, they will still remain as members of Forum 4 Service Delivery. But in terms of their work being cancelled or in their communities, they're going to be campaigning and working as ActionSA members. So it's exciting and now obviously they've already started now….Herman Mashaba (02:53.592).getting people who voted them into power to know that they are now officially ActionSA councillors as far as the public is concerned. And yeah, so it's exciting. And when we prepare for 2026, they officially, you'll see they're going to contest as ActionSA candidates, which is really very exciting. .So yeah, now it's exciting news and this is the first of many. This is the beginning. I'm sure you've read in the papers that actually they say it's involved with other parties. Yes, absolutely, I can confirm at the moment only two. We still at the moment having informal discussions, but we'll see what happens. But we have identified massive opportunities throughout the country, more especially at local government level, a lot of community-based organisations register as political parties. They're sitting with the five, 10 councillors and so forth. So I'm busy negotiating to get as many as possible to do the same kind of an arrangement that we did with Forum for Service Delivery..Chris Steyn (04:20.292).But you can't give us any hints as to which parties you are talking to at the moment..Herman Mashaba (04:25.964).Well, look, I, I don't have to really lie to society. The informal discussions we are having is with BOSA and Rize Mzansi. Yes, those are the two. We're having informal discussions and we've agreed to let us conclude this one first and then we can then start formal discussions with them. I think, yeah, within the next….Herman Mashaba (04:54.306).…coming days, weeks and whatever, the formal discussions will begin. Are they going to be successful? You know what, we will only really know the success or failure once we've tried, but we're not going to miss all of them. We are going to see massive opportunities..Chris Steyn (05:14.372).Sir, how is it going in Tshwane with the ActionSA Mayor?.Herman Mashaba (05:19.728).My goodness, that's something that makes me so immensely proud of the tough decision I had to take. Remember, Chris, this wasn't an easy decision and it's something that just really happened at this point of a moment when I saw a serious threat and I decided I'm not going to wait to be killed..And today, what is four months later, when they said I'm forming a Doomsday Coalition, four months later, to be honest with you, I think, and perhaps I'm biased and I'm happy to be biased, South Africa has never seen a mayor as hardworking, as respectful and committed public servant than we have in the City of Tshwane. .We run a complex coalition, but if you look at how the teams are working together, including actually now the employees of the City, I mean, it's unbelievable how people have come to the party to assist them because before it was very difficult to because they were in a hostile environment. Now, all of a sudden, you know, people are actually putting in so much of the time. .I'm sure if you follow the developments in Tshwane. As I'm speaking to you now in the rain, people are cutting grass in Mamelodi, in Waterkloof, in Laudium and Mamelodi, fixing streetlights. Actually, it was this morning I saw one of someone's tweet saying the last time a township had streetlights was after the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. .You know, this is…really, I think for me, gives me such great satisfaction and will work towards ensuring that this coalition actually finishes their term leading up to 2026..Chris Steyn (07:29.154).And clean water in Hammanskraal, what, for the first time in 20 years? How long has it been?.Herman Mashaba (07:33.164).Yeah, my goodness. my, we're…almost 20 years and yeah, really very pleased. We fought this, I'm sure, Chris, you know, we fought this from 2021 immediately after the formation of ActionSA. We're actually using my own money, ran a Commission of Inquiry using a retired judge to head that commission for two days. That report, we made it available to the public. We gave it to the city of Tshwane, but they refused to attend the proceedings. We were having for the two days plus minus 200 people of the community giving their submissions, officials of the City and so forth. But the government at the time refused to participate. But I went myself to go and hand over to give them the report, which they did nothing about it..But what is actually even more sad is the fact that after the 2021 local government elections, we put the DA into government ourselves without their readiness because they pulled out of negotiations with us two days before the first sitting of Council. I mobilised, I'm sure this is on record, I mobilised other parties to say, to avoid ANC, let's vote the DA into power without their knowledge and just took them by surprise. .I'm sure you can remember that incident in Ekurhuleni because Ekurhuleni were the first ones to do that, to run the election of the Speaker, followed by Johannesburg and the following day we are in Tshwane. And now we are co-governing with them. We said, can you guys please give us the report on this Rooival, including the appointment of the tender, the awarding of the tender to Edwin Sodi's company. They refused, forcing us, you can imagine governing with a partner, refusing to disclose such critical information, forcing us to come out with a motion which we presented to council….Herman Mashaba (09:57.262).that the government was forced by a council resolution to make this report to be made public. And I can tell you that it did not disclose everything. And obviously we made sure that this attracts the attention of national government because obviously the ANC having failed before DA, then fortunately nothing the process, the Minister of Water at national level came to the City to negotiate the intervention. And yes, it is through the intervention of national government where they put in money to build the four modules to supply people of Hammanskraal with clean water. And you saw last week, the first module, clean water, it's there for people of Hammanskraal. End of February, the second module come through, end of April and by end of June, entire area of Hammanskraal will have clean water. And that's something that makes me proud to be a public servant, to hold government accountable. .And to think, you remember, the other day I was actually talking to two of my colleagues, with Atholl Trollip and Michael Beauman, I was talking generally about some of the issues. And I said to them, you know, something that deeply hurt me during the time when I was insulted about Tshwane, that they ran a massive campaign with graphics showing me with a city burning, Herman Mashaba in the middle looking at money. And that's when I said, my goodness, and running this campaign, that my motivation around the removal of DA was driven by the City's money. To think that even ActionSA does not pay me. I don't really get paid by any government. don't get paid by Action SA. And I'm one of the big funders of this political party. And I'm really very proud about this. But you can imagine as a person. So I was saying to Michael and Atholl to say, you know, you can imagine. I said, guys….Herman Mashaba (12:22.126).you know, anyone outside of Herman Mashaba cannot really feel the pain. Sometimes people don't understand when something has not happened to you, let's say you lose your family member, you know, other people can come in to give you condolences, but they can't share your pain. Now, you can imagine sharing the pain of Herman Mashaba being millions of money and massive propaganda being launched that this is a corrupt person, is driven by corruption..In the meantime, people of Hammanskraal were dying, you know, over 30 people died of that cholera, and places where I come from. But it's not about where I come from it's about our people actually in this country dying of undrinkable water because of government and not providing services to people, but look that is behind me right now. .Your question was us, was about Nasiphi and our coalition partners, and I pray that they keep on doing what they're doing right now. Really, it's unbelievable. This morning they had a Mayco meeting and I was given the feedback of the interactions. It really gives me such immense pleasure and give me the appreciate of the privilege that God has given me to be able to do this terrible job..Chris Steyn (13:56.684).Lastly, Sir, please tell our viewers more about the new deputy leader of ActionSA..Herman Mashaba (14:01.934).Okay, Dr. Kekana, really, I mean, this guy and this party, unbelievable what they've actually achieved with literally no resources or limited resources. For them, they are now 10 years old from 2014 and contested again in 2021 in the local government, which for them to have 38 councillors in 14 municipalities… .Dr. Kekana…is someone with a postgraduate diploma, qualifications, PhD in political science, he's got an LLB. He's an amazing person involved in human rights matters, involved in, in government fighting corruption. So that's why as a party we had to take this difficult decision – but necessary – decision to have him as the deputy president of the party to assist me because it's someone who's bringing such wealth of experience in terms of on-the-ground type structures because I mean their achievement had nothing to do with money; it had to do with the ability and the knowledge of how to mobilize people with limited resources. .So, he's going to be taking over that responsibility, working with all our provincial chairpersons, working with all our structures all over the country so that I can focus on the big picture. I'm asking South Africans, and I said this today in the press conference that, obviously a question was asked about the….Herman Mashaba (16:27.11).…or why I'm not in Parliament. And I said, you remember I explained to you at the time when after the elections to say, I think I can play a strategic role outside Parliament. Because if you look at our six parliamentarians led by Atholl in Parliament, those guys are amazing. The records are there in Parliament in terms of effective constructive opposition that no one has actually ever participated since the elections… than ActionSA, with only six members. .When I gave them the mandate, said, guys, you must go in there to go and box as 60 people. And I honestly believe, as I say, sometimes I'm biased, they box like they're more than 60. And the thing is the evidence is there where we can show you the type of questions and so forth. If you look at the last few days, when it talks to accountability in Parliament, where ActionSA, once in Parliament, we started asking really very difficult questions because with every 70% of parliamentarians being in one block covering for one another..And unfortunately, MK is the third biggest political party. If you look at the questions we've asked compared to them, you know, so we more, so that's a role that we obviously like to continue playing. .But at the same time, I think this gives me, the appointment of Dr. Kekana as our deputy president, it's going to take so much weight from me on the issues I've just raised so that I can really concentrate on strategic issues of actual growth of our party and something I'm committed to..Chris Steyn (18:41.326).Thank you. That was Mr. Herman Mashaba, ActionSA leader speaking to BizNews after he made the first move to unite the opposition ahead of a municipal elections next year. Thank you, Sir. And I'm Chris Steyn.Herman Mashaba (18:56.29).Thank you..Read also:.Makone Maja: Action SA's Tshwane miscalculation – Gauteng's voters are gatvolAction SA's crossroads: Progress or political gamble in Tshwane?Athol Trollip: Why Steenhuisen is dead wrong about ActionSA – and his blue lights

Mashaba merger moves for 2026 municipal elections…

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