LETTER: Mashaba is a weak strategist

I fail to understand the media’s infatuation with Herman Mashaba and his private fiefdom, ActionSA. The truth is that Mashaba has proven himself to be a terrible leader and a weak strategist. He has no staying power or loyalty to voters who elected him.

Mashaba left the DA when things go too hot in the Johannesburg kitchen. Now, just six weeks after urging voters to elect him to the council, he has again left them in the lurch, resigning his seat with the weak excuse that he wants to build new leadership.

There is no way in which Mashaba will tolerate any other high-profile person in his small clique. He wants to be the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral. Ask Makhosi Khoza and his Tshwane caucus what happens when they differ from the leader. Bongani Baloyi and Athol Trollip — both impressive minds in their own right — will discover this at their peril.

Mashaba should be seen for what he is, the “Malema Whisperer”; an EFF-enabler wearing an expensive suit rather than a red overall. More than any other politician since Jacob Zuma, Mashaba has helped build Julius Malema’s profile and ability to hold the balance of power in our biggest cities.

Building consensus and forging a common agenda must be achieved without Mashaba and his red beret-wearing associates.

Andrew Barnard 
Orange Grove

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