‘They are nervous about what is going to happen’: Mashaba says the gloves are off in Tshwane coalition as election day looms

ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba says that despite tensions between his party and its coalition partners in the City of Tshwane, there will be stability until 4 November, when South Africans go to the polls.

Mashaba was reacting to reports that the ActionSA-led coalition in the City of Tshwane could collapse because of attacks that the mayor of Tshwane, Nasiphi Moya, has been receiving from her coalition partners.

Moya, ActionSA’s flagship mayor in Tshwane, has been under attack from the ANC and the EFF in the municipality. She has been accused of implementing anti-poor and anti-black raids under the guise of by-law enforcement; the EFF has also accused her of corruption in relation to renovations at her house. Moya and her party have denied these claims.

“This coalition will hold strong until the elections – I don’t think even the ANC wants this coalition to collapse,” said Mashaba.

Why are the ANC and EFF upset?

He said the ANC and the EFF are upset with Moya over two issues: the reinstatement of Tshwane City Manager Johann Mettler. ActionSA also disagrees with its coalition partners over the reinstatement of controversial Chief Finance Officer (CFO) Gareth Mnisi.

Mnisi featured prominently at the Madlanga Commission, where he was accused of rigging tenders and leaking confidential information to external parties. Following his suspension, council decided that the charges against him were not serious enough to warrant further action and instead issued him with a final written warning. Mashaba said ActionSA believed Mnisi should have been held accountable for the allegations raised at the Madlanga commission.

He said these disagreements are not grounds to collapse the coalition.

However, he also said the ANC and the EFF were “panicking” because of the inroads that ActionSA has made into communities around Tshwane.

“I am sure that you can understand that we have entered the era of elections, and as you can understand, I sympathise with the ANC and the EFF because they are nervous of what is going to happen,” he said.

Is ActionSA a step ahead?

Mashaba said the ANC and the EFF have failed to promote the work that their public representatives are doing, while ActionSA used its mayor position to reach out to all communities in Tshwane.

“They were fast asleep, and now they wake up, and Nasiphi is a household name; she is loved by all South Africans, not only people from Tshwane,” he said.

Making life hard for Moya

Mashaba accused the disgruntled coalition partners of trying to make life “difficult” for Moya.

“They are too late to damage her with false claims; instead, they are making her more popular because people of Tshwane love Nasiphi Moya,” he said.

Mashaba disputed ANC claims that they still enjoy overwhelming support in the City of Tshwane.

“They must be smoking something,” he said.

Mashaba said his party is going after voters who would have historically voted for the ANC.

“Chances of ActionSA running Tshwane on our own are very high; we are hard at work,” he said.

Mashaba said even some in the ANC knew that the party would suffer a decline in support at the polls.

“The ANC knows that people do not want them,” he said.

He said ActionSA would not be attacking its coalition partners in public.

“Nasiphi is a lady, she is a professional, there is no need to attack them. Why should we attack our colleagues and partners? If you look at us, we have not,” he said.