ActionSA congratulates Steenhuisen and welcomes his position on unseating ANC

3 April 2023 

ActionSA congratulates DA Federal Leader John Steenhuisen on his re-election to lead the Democratic Alliance (DA) at their elective conference held this weekend.

We also welcome the remarks made by Mr Steenhuisen in which he appeared to distance the DA from plans to work with the ANC, and instead embrace the idea of working with like-minded opposition parties to present a united front to voters in the 2024 General Election.

ActionSA has long maintained that to #FixSouthAfrica we cannot partner with those who broke it in the first place. Instead, we need to unite those that believe in unseating the ANC behind a collective effort to do so. This is the only way we can build an inclusive and prosperous future for South Africa.

It is exactly with this in mind that ActionSA, together with the IFP, VF Plus and the ACDP, have been involved in discussions towards forming a united coalition bloc in 2024 for some time now.

While we welcome Mr Steenhuisen’s commitment to these discussions, we would caution him against attempts at making this a DA-led process. In his remarks, Mr Steenhuisen announced that “[the DA] will immediately initiate a process to form a pre-election Moonshot Pact with likeminded political parties, civil society organisations and the civic movements to defeat the ANC, to keep the EFF out.”

For a ‘grand coalition’ against the ANC to succeed in forming a stable government, coalition partners must approach these discussions in a spirit of mutual respect and humility. We offer this as unsolicited advice to Mr Steenhuisen and urge him not to make this important project about the DA or his leadership.

Ultimately, we would remind Mr Steenhuisen that the voters will have their say next year, and this will determine the proportionality of representation in such a coalition, and any considerations of leadership. These are the kind of political questions that have the ability to derail this venture and must be avoided at all costs.

We thus urge the DA to engage as equal partners and focus on building a strong and united coalition platform that paves the way for stable and effective government that turns around the legacy of ANC failure and corruption.

ActionSA wishes Mr Steenhuisen well and re-extends a hand of partnership to him in the necessary work of removing the ANC from government and building a viable alternative to the criminal and corrupt ANC.

Issued by Herman Mashaba, ActionSA President, 3 April 2023