NATASHA MARRIAN: Stakes are high in ActionSA’s Tshwane gambit

ActionSA wants to prove its mettle in government, but the road it has chosen is littered with gargantuan potholes, SA-style.

In a “high risk, high reward” political play, the party made its big move after the election this week by putting forward its chief director of governance, Nasiphi Moya, as Tshwane mayor. 

Moya, with the support of the ANC and EFF, replaces the DA’s Cilliers Brink, who was voted out in a motion of no confidence brought by the ANC two weeks ago.

It is a high-stakes move on ActionSA’s part — a pact with the most dubious and incompetent group of ANC leaders yet to preside over Gauteng.

The vote against Brink followed a decision by ActionSA’s highest decision-making body, the party senate, to pull out of the coalition with the DA in Tshwane, in which Moya held the post of deputy mayor. 

The DA-ActionSA tie-up was always an awkward one. During the formation of the now defunct multiparty charter in the run-up to the May 29 election, ActionSA was a nervous participant. It wanted an assurance from the DA that the party would not opt for a coalition with the ANC instead.

The DA gave this assurance provided that the multiparty charter obtained the numbers required to form a government. This did not happen, which the DA felt freed it up to enter the government of national unity (GNU) and prevent the ANC from partnering with the EFF and Jacob Zuma’s MK party. 

But ActionSA saw this as a betrayal. As the GNU took shape and began talking about forming a pact to stabilise local government — which would have meant the ANC and DA working together in Gauteng’s metros — the party opted to act quickly.

Its timing was crucial — ActionSA performed way below its own expectations in the election and risked going the route of the numerous small political parties that have mushroomed before each election. It used its only advantage: the solid support it garnered in the 2021 local government election, which made it a key player in Gauteng metros.

The timing also suited the Gauteng ANC, which considered ActionSA a far more palatable alternative to the DA. It would ultimately prefer to exclude the DA at all levels of government and work with parties such as the EFF and MK, motivated by internal ANC politics and a desire to preserve patronage networks in the province. But by ditching the DA and teaming up with ActionSA, the ANC in Gauteng is going against the party at national level.

ActionSA’s Michael Beaumont says his party is fully aware that tying up with the ANC’s Gauteng leadership, Panyaza Lesufi and TK Nciza, is risky, but the power play in Tshwane is by its nature a “high risk, high reward” gambit.

“It is going to be challenging ... but let’s be honest, [DA federal council chair] Helen Zille was no cup of tea either,” he said. “Look, if you as a political party don’t want to deal with complicated individuals, politics is not for you; rather go into banking.” 

He said ActionSA’s conundrum was that it had prematurely taken a decision not to work with the ANC, but this proved to be limiting in the “current coalition-heavy environment”.

“We’ve realised that in this real, modern world, and in SA where coalitions are the order of the day, you simply cannot draw red lines.” 

High risk, high reward indeed. ActionSA won 8% of the vote in Tshwane in 2021. The DA’s support stands at 32% to the ANC’s 34%. Should things go south for ActionSA during its tenure in government, as a splinter party its support may well shift back to the erstwhile official opposition in 2026. 

The city’s finances, service delivery problems and backlogs caused by constrained resources will hobble Moya’s ability to make a difference quickly, especially in the capital city’s sprawling townships. 

ActionSA now has to carefully balance the political dynamics of a new coalition, including Lesufi and Nciza’s factional and patronage-linked agenda as well as the EFF’s demands.

As party leader Herman Mashaba learnt during his tenure as Johannesburg mayor in 2016, this is another mammoth task. He conceded on Thursday that the ANC is the main driver of the coalition, which does place his party in a somewhat awkward position.

It implies that while ActionSA will be the face of the Tshwane government, the ANC will be pulling the strings. If things go south, who will voters blame when they return to the polls in just less than two years?

• Marrian is Business Day editor-at-large.