ACTIONSA has announced its separation from the failed Multi-Party Charter which included the DA, ACDP, IFP and Freedom Front Plus launched last year in a bid to prevent an ANC-EFF coalition government.
This came after the DA publicly agreed to form a government of national unity with the ANC, EFF and IFP as possible partners.
Speaking during a media briefing on Thursday, ActionSA national chairperson Michael Beaumont indicated that the party would no longer continue being in a partnership with the DA which had reneged on the founding principles of the charter, which was to refuse any form of a partnership with the ANC.
As such, the party, which only achieved 630 000 votes in the May 29 elections to secure five seats in the National Assembly, said it would now focus its attention on being a “constructive opposition” in Parliament.
Beaumont said ActionSA’s senate had met to process and deliberate on its way forward.
“This process has resolved that ActionSA will leave the Multi-Party Charter because of the serious breach by those parties who publicly signed and campaigned under an agreement which expressly ruled out working relationships with the ANC,“ he said.
This as the ANC is set to announce its final coalition partners which could include the EFF, the Patriotic Alliance and the IFP in spite of protestations from alliance partners who have cautioned the ANC against involving the DA in their government of national unity.
Beaumont said: “ActionSA has assessed a potential Parliament in which the opposition forms a coalition with the ANC and determined that ActionSA is going to have to be the unofficial opposition in Parliament. This is why ActionSA has announced that its president and national chairperson step back to allow for a team that will punch above its weight and serve South Africans like a much larger team.
“It was similarly resolved that ActionSA will continue to honour its commitment to be an alternative to the ANC. As such, ActionSA will not entertain any working relationship with the ANC at any level of government.”
Political analyst Jamie Mighti said the announcement was late but correct.
Mighti said it is late because the effect of the multiparty has already been detrimental to their prospect in this election.
Mighti said ActionSA got caught up in the internal negotiations dynamics of the MPC at the expense of focusing on differentiating themselves from the DA, campaigning in a way that was truly adversarial to the DA and actually identifying target areas where they could stand out.
“They ended up looking like cheap imitation of the DA and as a result people chose the DA over them. That is the reason why it is late,” said Mighti.
He said they needed to work out what their message was going to be for South Africa in the coming weeks, months and years.
“ActionSA needs to prepare for local government elections because they are now on the downside because once a perception is created that you are losing or that you are a loser, what happens is that donors are no longer enthusiastic and also voters are no longer looking at you with the same energy.
“The performance of ActionSA in the elections was definitely lacklustre and I’m sure a disappointment to all of them. They spent a lot of money on staffing. They recruited a lot of DA people at high expense and they got limited rewards from those recruitments,” Mighti said.
ActionSA spokesperson Samkelo Mgobozi said ActionSA, going forward, would operate as a constructive opposition in the National Assembly and the three legislatures where they were represented. “If sound and ethical proposals are placed before our representatives that serve the South African people, we will support those proposals unreservedly.
“Similarly, when accountability is required, ActionSA will be the hardest when it comes to holding a government to account when the opposition is conflicted,” Mgobozi said.
He added that the essence of these positions was that ActionSA would enter an era where it would stand alone, unencumbered by political relationships, and would focus on taking the most credible alternative to the South African people.
“It is important to stress that ActionSA has only begun its process of positioning itself ahead of the local government election in 2026.
“Notwithstanding the current focus on national and provincial politics, the ActionSA senate has orientated itself around the fact that most South Africans suffer most greatly because of municipal failures that leave them without water, unreliable electricity and submerged in sewage,” said Mgobozi.
The Star