Pretoria – ActionSA national chairperson, Michael Beaumont, announced on Monday that the party will not be a part of the multi-party administration in the metro, dealing yet another blow to the stability of the Ekurhuleni coalition.
Despite voting in favour of Ekurhuleni mayor Tania Campbell’s reinstatement after she was removed from office by a motion of no confidence last month, Beaumont said ActionSA councillors will not hold any MMC roles.
This means the party’s councillors won’t form part of the mayoral committee that Campbell is scheduled to announce soon.
Beaumont said the party was not happy with three things within the coalition, and that their major concern was the lack of service delivery, especially in the townships.
“One is basic service delivery in the metro; two agreed priorities of the coalition government that are just not being implemented; and three, what we regard to be the obstruction of local structures’ efforts to obtain majorities required to defeat motions of no confidence,” he said.
Beaumont said the party commissioned a public poll of 3 000 Ekurhuleni residents which found that 62% of residents felt the City has been moving in the wrong direction over the past year.
“… 50% of residents felt it had got worse, 32% said that it had stayed the same and only 16% said that life had got better over the last 12 months. Of grave concern to ActionSA was that 57% of respondents did not feel that they trusted the local government to continue.”
The party said it was best to take on an opposition role to nsure the DA coalition delivers services to residents.
“We will defeat motions of no confidence that come from the ANC and the EFF, and we will use our votes at every opportunity to do so because we remained committed to keeping the ANC out of government.
“This is a commitment we have made and we will continue to deliver on that commitment. But negotiations would be treated on a case-by-case basis,” Beaumont added.
Speaking to The Star, ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba, said the party was concerned about the poor levels of service delivery in Tshwane, the City of Joburg and Ekurhuleni.
“One of the items is ActionSA’s participation in Ekurhuleni. We are concerned to participate in a minority government… You are always in a vulnerable position (as a minority government), and this is a major concern as every time we are removed it affects our credibility,” Mashaba said.
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