ActionSA’s North West Provincial chairperson, Kwena Mangope, says the party is confident of unseating the African National Congress (ANC) in the province in the 2024 general elections.
ActionSA, one of the newer parties in the country, is already making its presence felt in North West. This has changed the composition of opposition parties in the province.
Five months after its launch in the North West, ActionSA has already appointed its interim provincial executive committee Kwena Mangope, the son of the late Bophuthatswana homeland leader, Kgosi Lucas Mangope, as its provincial chairperson.
Action SA launches #LetsFixNorthWest campaign:
Mangope says the party has already made inroads in the province and plans to improve service delivery.
“Since taking up office our teams have made many strides. We have constituted a provincial executive committee that is hard at work. We will work tirelessly to unseat the ANC government that has failed our people and put a new government that will take South Africa forward. Local government in North West is in tatters. Local government in North West is dysfunctional,” adds Mangope.
Poor service delivery
Residents currently complain about poor service delivery. Some hope opposition parties will bring change, while others disagree.
“Service delivery is very poor. So I agree that there should be oppositions,” says a resident.
“I don’t see the need to vote because there’s no difference. So maybe if there’s a lot of competition they’ll see a need,” adds another resident.
“We don’t need opposition parties. They all preach one thing. Having many is confusing,” says another resident.
A political analyst from the North West University, Professor André Duvenhage says with many people defecting to ActionSA, Mangope’s name might benefit the party in the province.
“What is clear to me is that when it comes to Kwena Mangope he is coming from the family of Lucas Mangope and they are influential in the old North West. many people are looking back and it’s a bit of irony to the times of Bophuthatswana as the times when things were a lot better than was the case during the current dispensation. I believe specifically with the linking to the so-called United Christian Democratic Party’s support base ActionSA can benefit from it,” adds Professor Duvenhage.
The party is expected to launch new branches in different parts of the province soon.
