ActionSA party leader Herman Mashaba is more ashamed of South Africa today than he was back in the dark days of apartheid.

He made this comment this morning when the party announced the appointment of former ANC stalwart Thoko Mashiane as the Mpumalanga ActionSA chairperson.

Mashiane’s leadership roles during her tenure in the ANC included positions on the Mpumalanga Housing Board, chairperson of the ANC Women’s League in Mpumalanga and representing Mpumalanga on the National Executive Committee.

At the ceremony, she said she supports Mashaba’s view that the term ‘comrade’ should not be used to refer to ActionSA party members. “Comrades are thugs and crooks. If you start being a comrade, you become friends and no longer do what you need to do.”

Mashaba did not mince his words when he said ActionSA wants to teach the electorate about the power of democracy. He said fixing South Africa was the responsibility of all people.

He said that the ANC had not delivered on its promise of a better life for all, explaining that he voted for the ANC in 1994 with the real hope that his children and grandchildren would find dignity in being South African.

“I was born and raised in an evil system. HF Verwoerd [known as the architect of apartheid] was appointed as prime minister in 1958, the year before my birth.

“I am not a young man; I am doing a job that I hate! The work is brutal; we are away from our families. But it is one of the most rewarding jobs. We are ‘actioners’ and it is going to require all of us to fix the country. More than 20 million eligible voters have abstained from voting. We need to get them back.

“Our public schools are dysfunctional, that is why our young voters don’t understand the power of their votes.”

He said it is the party’s vision to emerge as the second biggest party in the country. “It may be a bold statement, but I am not in the business to be the [lesser] opposition. We are here to fix the country… The only way you can change the lives of the people is to govern.”

Mashiane, who hails from Barberton, said Mpumalanga is a rich province with many agricultural opportunities. She spoke out about failed land claim farms, saying that communities were given land, but not the support they needed to succeed. “ActionSA needs to fix this,” she said.

Other industries in the province that need attention are mining and tourism, she said, adding that she is committed to ‘action’ change.

ActionSA announced that it intends to build leadership in nine provinces to activate structures ahead of the 2024 national and provincial elections.