Michael Beaumont, chair of ActionSA, has falsely claimed that the DA "asked ActionSA to reach out to the EFF in order to keep the coalition alive".
This is a serious distortion of the facts.
WATCH: @ME_Beaumont details how it is mathematically impossible to keep the ANC without involving the EFF.
— ActionSA (@Action4SA) February 7, 2022
He reveals that it was the DA who asked ActionSA to reach out to the EFF in order to keep the coalition alive. pic.twitter.com/eAucXROh03
The DA has not, and will not, seek any working agreement in government with the EFF and has repeatedly said so at every turn in the coalition negotiations.
This disingenuous claim arose as follows.
In Ekurhuleni (as well as the other Gauteng metros), the EFF (without any request from the DA) voted for the DA mayoral candidates.
When it came to voting for Committee Chairs in Ekurhuleni, the EFF decided to vote with the ANC, and managed to get 5 Committee chairs for the EFF. The EFF, without any involvement with the DA, changed its voting position from the one it adopted in the mayoral election.
The next metro to elect chairs was Johannesburg. The Johannesburg Mayor, the DA's Mpho Phalatse, wanted to know whether the EFF would repeat the Ekurhuleni pattern in the vote for Committee Chairs in Johannesburg.
As she has a good rapport with Herman Mashaba, and as Herman is in contact with the EFF, she merely asked him to get that information so that she could be prepared for what lay ahead.
ActionSA then asked if that request could be formally submitted to ActionSA by the DA leader John Steenhuisen. That interaction never took place.
The only request from the DA, was the request to be informed as to whether the EFF would repeat their Ekurhuleni voting pact with the ANC in the vote for Committee Chairs. Then we would apply our minds to how to avoid it.
It is therefore entirely disingenuous to claim that the DA asked ActionSA to approach the EFF to bring it into any form of agreement "to keep the coalition alive". Implying that we were prepared to consciously bring the EFF into government is a severe distortion of the truth. This also reveals why ActionSA was so insistent on getting a formal request from the DA leader. This did not materialise.
We cannot let this disinformation remain in the public domain without an immediate response.
Issued by Helen Zille via Facebook, 7 February 2022
