Newcomer ActionSA is making inroads into the three municipalities it is contesting in the country’s richest province, Gauteng. With 27% of voting districts declared, the party has garnered 6.5% of votes in the province.
So, far its strongest showing is in the City of Johannesburg where it holds 19 % of the vote with 10 % of voting districts, or VDs declared.
With 7% of VDs declared in Tshwane, Action SA has nearly 8% of the vote and in Ekhuruleni with 18 % of VDs declared it has just over 6% of support.
“We are a new kid on the block but now South Africa has accepted that ActionSA is one of the main players because we are the main player now officially, we are not just a by the way party where people can come with their own research or polls now the voters have spoken and here we are. If you want to form a government in Johannesburg you have to come to us, if you want to form a government in Ekhuruleni and Tshwane you have to come to us,” says ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba.
He says the formation of ActionSA was as a response to the concern about the collapse of the country:
Mashaba has ruled out any coalition with the African National Congress, saying it is open to talks with the Economic Freedom Fighters and Democratic Alliance.
“The DA must understand that if they really want to talk to us we are happy to talk to them because most of our policies and values are not diametrically opposite but what is fundamentally different between the DA and us, one of our core values is social justice. Our people suffered 400 years under apartheid, our people have suffered under the ANC government, so no one is going to tell us that we cannot really service poor people because they do not pay taxes, it will be an insult.”
