ActionSA ready to bring change to Gauteng’s metros

21 July 2021

ActionSA is proud to announce that Herman Mashaba, Abel Tau, and Letlhogonolo Moseki are ActionSA’s mayoral candidates for the metros of Johannesburg, Tshwane, and Ekurhuleni respectively.  

Our Mayoral candidates are joined by successful ward candidates elected by the residents of their communities, attracting a total of 22 051 votes from communities across Gauteng. It is with great pride that we note that in our total party list to be submitted to the IEC includes 116 candidate representatives are young people eager to serve their communities – with the youngest being 18 years old, Chinedu Edward.

Our list also consists of former Members of Parliament, former MMCs, entrepreneurs, legal professionals, law enforcement professionals such as former Johannesburg Police Chief, David Tembe, and career civil servants like Michael Tshishonga who, at 73 years old, wants to step out of retirement and fight for his community's needs.

It gives us great pride to know that residents came out in their numbers to support our winning mayoral candidates, with Herman Mashaba capturing 94% of the vote in Johannesburg, while candidates in Abel Tau and Letlhogonolo Moseki captured 79% and 58% of votes, respectively, in these hotly contested elections.  

With the election of all the candidates who will represent ActionSA on the ballot box in the coming Local Government Elections, we are now ready to bring change to the residents in communities across Gauteng. 

Through our candidate elections, for the first time in South Africa’s history, residents were given the power to choose who would represent ActionSA on the ballot paper in the upcoming Local Government Elections. This is a far cry from other parties who impose their preferred corrupt, unethical, and incompetent political leaders on communities. 

Each of our candidates is committed to bettering the lives of residents through competent governance, improving visible services for communities, ending the corruption that has become endemic under the ANC within cities, and working to create economic opportunities for all residents. 

Gauteng's metros must become hubs for innovations and beacons of service delivery for the rest of South Africa. Residents deserve nothing less.

Herman Mashaba, ActionSA President, and City of Johannesburg Mayoral Candidate said, “I would like to begin by thanking those of you who participated in the historic ActionSA Candidate Elections, and for placing your faith in me as the mayoral candidate for Johannesburg. When I was elected the Executive Mayor of the City of Johannesburg in August 2016, the City was a mess. The so-called ‘World Class African City’ was, to many of its residents, a world-class slum. From my very first day in office, turning Johannesburg into a city that its residents could be proud to call home was the focus of my three years.

I am immensely proud of what we managed to achieve in a relatively short space of time. In our three years in government, the multi-party government, which I led, improved and expanded services to all communities. We resurfaced almost 1000 km of roads and tarred 88km of gravel roads; we replaced almost 200km of water pipes and over 125 km of sewer pipes reducing bursts and blockages; we electrified over 10,000 households for the first time and provided over 11,000 ablution facilities to those without basic sanitation; we improved access to primary healthcare by opening 6 new clinics and rolling out 10 mobile clinics, and we expanded the Johannesburg Metro Police by an additional 1,500 officers.

Under the ANC, these gains have been reversed. As I kick-start my mayoral campaign, I am deeply committed to getting the ANC voted out of power out and getting service delivery in Johannesburg back on track!”

To get Johannesburg back on track, Mashaba would prioritise:

Revive the stalled Inner-City Revitalisation mega project by working with the private sector and civil society to create shared value that incentivises investment, creates job opportunities, and provides inclusive affordable housing for residents;

Once again declaring corruption public enemy number 1;

Restoring #OperationBuyaMthetho and making Joburg unsafe for criminals;

Streamlining the City’s bloated structure to ensure that we can improve service delivery by ensuring the City’s organisational structure is responsive to the needs of residents;

Rebuilding a competent, professional and accountable public service committed to Service With Pride; and

Insourcing contract workers exploited by tenderpreneurs.

For the City of Tshwane, Mayoral Candidate, Abel Tau, improving the lives of residents will require getting the basics of service delivery right. Tau had this to offer: “Residents are gatvol of ‘Ghost Mayor’, Cllr Randall Williams' absentee leadership and the colossal service delivery failures. Under Williams, Tshwane has lurched from crisis to crisis, the latest being widespread water shortages in the city.

Since 2016, residents have not enjoyed stable and effective governance. The DA has parachuted two Mayors into the city, both of whom were mired in scandals and an inability to deliver services. The ANC was no better - too busy with petty politicking tactics instead of ensuring service delivery. Once in office, ActionSA will work to rebuild residents' faith in local government by working to get the basics of service delivery right in every one of our communities.” 

To deliver basic quality services in Tshwane, Tau would prioritise:

Improve visible service delivery by capacitating front-line departments with resources to address service complaints;

Increase visible policing, particularly in poor communities, so that all residents finally feel, and are, safe;

Increase expenditure on the maintenance and upgrading of basic infrastructure to end prolonged water and power outages in Tshwane;

Implement a multipronged approach to the provision of housing to fight growing housing challenges in the city – this includes revitalising Tshwane’s CBD and making it a clean and safe hub for business and affordable housing; and

Get the City of Tshwane out of bankruptcy and back to financial health through improved financial controls. 

Letlhogonolo Moseki, Ekurhuleni's Mayoral Candidate, is determined to create an environment where businesses and entrepreneurs can, once again, generate much-needed jobs for residents. “Once, Ekurhuleni was Gauteng's industrial hub and our people had the dignity of work. The ANC, through poor governance, strangled our local economy. I am ready to engage every one of our communities in Ekurhuleni to help me make sure that on election day, we can vote the ANC out and start implementing a plan for improving the lives of Ekurhuleni residents”.

To kickstart a recovery for Ekurhuleni, Moseki would prioritise:

Creating an environment for jobs within the city by cutting red-tape and making it easier to open manufacturing businesses within the city;

Rolling out entrepreneurship and opportunity centres targeting young people and providing business support to residents; 

Ensure that corruption is fought at every turn;

Emulate the work of Herman Mashaba in revitalising our inner city;

Increasing the roll-out of social development services to the poorest of residents; and 

creating a cleaner and safer city by expanding the capacity of proper waste management services.

These are just the first changes ActionSA-led governments would prioritise to ensure service delivery to residents across Gauteng.

Our people have made it clear that they are gatvol of corruption, poor governance, and non-existent service delivery. They demand immediate change. For this to happen, every resident in Johannesburg, Tshwane, and Ekurhuleni must take action by voting the ANC out in the upcoming Local Government Elections. We need every one of the 18.3 million South Africans who did not vote, to stand together to elect an ethical and competent government that will serve the people of our country. 

At the coming Local Government Elections, we can fix our cities by electing representatives who will serve residents first. ActionSA stands ready to provide an alternative to the broken political system that has failed us all. 

Issued by Michael Beaumont, National Chairperson, ActionSA, 21 July 2021