ActionSA growth central to collapse of ANC in Soweto

2 June 2022 

Yesterday ActionSA registered significant growth in the Ward 53 by-election held in Soweto in Johannesburg. The results are recorded below:

*The above table compares ward ballot results from yesterday’s by-election to the 2021 November elections.

ActionSA emerged from the by-election as the party registering the greatest growth result, with the exception of an independent candidate.

Increasing from 12.7% to 21.8% is a result that stakes ActionSA’s claim as the party that can challenge the ANC by winning across their support in sufficient numbers to challenge their political monopoly. This is a vital achievement in the effort to provide South Africans with hope that the political establishment has not previously provided.

This result also demonstrates how the ANC is collapsing. The ANC’s support in Soweto has gone from 89%, at its high-water mark, down to 31% in yesterday’s by-election. While ActionSA does not stand alone in driving this collapse, the truth is that places like Soweto no longer offer the ANC the protection of guaranteed support and will begin to drive their removal from power in 2024.

This result does not take place in a vacuum. Less than a month ago, ActionSA contested Ward 96 in Tshwane in a rural community in the north of Pretoria where ActionSA recorded an increase from 6% to 22%. It is precisely this feature of ActionSA, the ability to draw support across all communities and build a multi-racial support base, that sets us apart from other political parties in South Africa.

*The above table compares ward 96, Tshwane by-election to the 2021 November elections.

As with many features of ActionSA, we do not have time to dwell upon achievements. Without delay our leadership team makes its way to the Eastern Cape to campaign in the all-important KwaNobuhle by-election in Nelson Mandela Bay (a seat that can change the running of this failed municipality on the brink of a water crisis). While in the Eastern Cape, ActionSA will launch its provincial structure and, in the process, stake our claim on the Eastern Cape in 2024.

This by-election result does not take place in isolation. It takes place within the context of ActionSA launching structures across the country in such a manner that it is part of a massive growth agenda for ActionSA to be the alternative to the ANC across the length and breadth of our country.

Issued by Herman Mashaba, President, ActionSA, 2 June 2022