ActionSA will not be censored in our efforts to highlight our broken political system that serves parties over people

18 May 2021

Note to editors: A video of Herman speaking to the censorship of our billboard can be found here. An animated film used to promote our Direct Democracy-based Candidate Election System, featuring the billboard artwork, can be found here. The audio clip by Lerato Ngobeni, ActionSA National Spokesperson, can be found here.

Over the past couple of weeks, ActionSA has been blocked and censored at every turn in our attempts to flight a seemingly controversial billboard exposing the shortcomings of our political system by highlighting the calibre of individuals chosen as public representatives by established political parties.

The aim of the billboard was not to target the individuals featured on our billboard, but rather to expose a political system that results in the selection of compromised candidates by political parties to serve in some of the highest public offices in the land. This system serves political parties instead of serving the people of South Africa.

Despite the right to the freedom of speech entrenched in our Constitution, no less than six media owners refused to flight the billboard for fear of political reprisal, vandalism or defamation.

Their refusal highlights just how broken our political system is; the right to fair comment and freedom of expression is being undermined and censored out of fear for the radicals, extremists and criminals that have captured our political discourse.

Let me be clear: ActionSA will not be silenced. We will not be deterred in our attempts to give a voice to good, hard-working, law-abiding, family-oriented and freedom-loving people of our beloved country.

We will not allow the silent majority of good South Africans to be drowned out by the selfish, the criminal and the corrupt.

We remain resolute that this silent majority must reclaim their political power from those that seek to hold us back from building an inclusive and prosperous future.

This is exactly what ActionSA has sought to achieve through the introduction of our Candidate Election System, based on the concept of Direct Democracy, that allows ordinary voters to decide who should represent them.

For the first time in our democratic history, it will be ordinary voters that decide on candidates for public office, in direct contrast to the back-room decision making processes employed by established parties that favours cronyism, nepotism and corruption over ethics and competence.

Since the launch of our ground-breaking system in mid-April, we have already seen over 5,000 prospective candidates and 23,000 prospective voters register to participate in our pilot Candidate Elections set to take place from 14 – 21 June.

Both Candidate- and Voter Registration is currently open at https://vote.actionsa.org.za/. Candidate Registration closes on 23 May, while Voter Registration is open until 7 June.

We believe that our Candidate Election System is the first step toward restoring real political power to the people of South Africa. These elections will take place online and in-person across three metros in Gauteng to allow all to participate.

We look forward to contesting the Local Government Elections on 27 October, where we stand ready to provide an alternative to the broken political system that has failed South Africans.

Issued by Herman Mashaba, President, ActionSA, 18 May 2021