EDITORIAL: Mashaba’s Tshwane mistake

The decision by ActionSA to abandon the coalition it was a part of in the City of Tshwane is a naive political move. 

Why does Tshwane matter? Put simply, it is about provincial power. It has the second-largest voting population in Gauteng. Winning Tshwane is crucial to winning the province outright — it is also the metro in which the contest between the ANC and the DA is most closely fought. In the 2021 local election, the DA won 32% of the vote, to the ANC’s 34.6%. 

For the ANC, taking over Tshwane now would make its 2026 election campaign an easy ride. It could simply lay the blame for poor delivery at the door of successive DA administrations. 

It wouldn’t be wrong. Between 2016 and 2023, the DA squandered its golden opportunity through dodgy appointments in the council all the way up to the mayor. 

It is only after the appointment of Cilliers Brink that the DA began making slight progress. Evidence of this is the improvement in Tshwane’s finances from an adverse to a qualified audit opinion in the latest report by the auditor-general. 

The ANC’s stance on removing Brink is obvious. ActionSA’s stance is not so clear. Its leader, Herman Mashaba, was among the most senior DA members after the 2016 election. His party has been in coalition with the DA in Tshwane since 2021 and its own councillor was the deputy mayor from early this year. 

If ActionSA wants to remove the ANC from power provincially, removing the DA from the Tshwane government is not the way to do it. Mashaba is playing right into Panyaza Lesufi’s hands.