ActionSA announced on Wednesday that will be collaborating with the Forum 4 Service Delivery (F4SD) party, amending its interim constitution to establish the position of an ActionSA deputy president, which F4SD president Dr Mbahare Kekana will take up.

ActionSA president Herman Mashaba pointed out that shortly after his party’s refusal to join the Government of National Unity (GNU), and the party’s exit from the Multi-Party Charter, Kekana approached him to discuss the possibility of the two parties coming together.

“I have been impressed by his vision and his selflessness in doing what he knows is correct for his party, its supporters and the people who look to the Forum 4 Service Delivery for leadership,” he said.

Mashaba said F4SD was a natural first choice for ActionSA.

“…while not represented in Parliament, its makeup is entirely oriented to local government, as its name suggests. Without any resources of any kind, it managed to be the 10th and 16th largest political party in South Africa in 2016 and 2021 respectively while only contesting a limited number of municipalities. In both elections the Forum 4 Service Delivery won over 80 000 votes,” he pointed out.

Founded in 2015, the F4SD cut its political teeth in the 2016 local government elections where it won several municipal seats.

The F4SD currently has thirty-eight municipal seats in North West, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape and Free State, eight MMCs and eight chairpersons of Municipal Public Accounts Committees.

The organisation has over 42 000 members, structures in six provinces and has enjoyed relatively stable leadership over the past 10 years, said ActionSA national chairperson Michael Beaumont.

“…it is also important to say that they bring leadership, and leadership is not something that you can quantify in a way that you can, with votes and seats,” highlighted Beaumont.

He said Kekana and the members of the F4SD were going to be important assets to ActionSA, and strong leaders in the country’s political future.

Beaumont noted the mutual agreement between the parties, clarifying that the two organisations would campaign under the banner and identity of ActionSA.

Members of the F4SD will be encouraged to join ActionSA.

F4SD councillors will take up dual membership until the end of their term of office, with Beaumont explaining that these councillors will begin the work of governing under ActionSA policy and its constitution.

He announced that a joined elective conference will be held in future, in which these organisations will formally come together.

In the intervening period there will be an amalgamation of structures in which the presidents of the two organisations will determine the leaders at regional, provincial and national levels.

Mashaba pointed out that ActionSA had begun engagements with “like-minded” political parties with the explicit strategy of exploring opportunities to cooperate and unite the opposition space.

“…while it is still early days, I am delighted to report that there is growing political will to engage in these discussions with the aim of prioritising the needs and best interests of South Africans,” he said.

SERVICE DELIVERY

Kekana said service delivery in rural municipalities was in shambles, accusing the African National Congress (ANC) of not being ready to co-govern, particularly in areas where it was in coalition with other political parties.

He further claimed that opposition parties in rural areas were “very weak and are bulldozed and forced into maladministration”.

He pointed to the millions in fruitless expenditures wasted yearly, and said public officials were only interested in self-enrichment and lacked required educational skills to address service delivery.

“…as we are beginning in this journey today, the poor have no hope of being serviced, struggling with jobs, the poor are struggling with water, roads, electricity. This journey is not about ActionSA, is not about Forum 4 Service Delivery, this journey is a calling, it is bigger than us,” he said.

ELECTORAL REFORM

Kekana said there must be advocation for single elections, whereby the elections – national and local – must be brought together.

He said the money being spent during elections could be used on service delivery.

“Our people have not yet found a political home that can address their needs. Every elections, we have around 21-million citizens who are not actually voting, there is a gap in terms of the political menu which our country is giving to them, hence ActionSA has an umbrella to address that issue,” he said.