ActionSA has pulled out of the coalition in the City of Ekurhuleni after accusing the recently re-elected mayor Tania Campbell of avoiding visiting townships.
The decision means the party’s councillors won’t form part of the mayoral committee that Campbell is scheduled to announce soon.
But the move does not come as a surprise. Herman Mashaba, the president of ActionSA has long decried the instability of the minority government in Ekurhuleni.
Last week the party supported Campbell after she had lost her position as mayor of Ekurhuleni through a motion of no confidence. With the help of coalition partners and the backing of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) Campbell was re-elected as mayor of Ekurhuleni.
During a briefing in Wanderers on Monday, Dr Nisiphi Moya, ActionSA’s head of governance, accused Campbell of refusing to go to black townships, which she said was something they did not stand for.
“This mayor refuses to go to Tsakane, refuses to go to Tembisa, which is something we’re not for,” Moya said.
ActionSA will continue to work with the DA in the Johannesburg and Tshwane metros despite pulling out of the Ekurhuleni minority coalition on the basis of instability and glaring inequalities in the delivery of services, the party’s national chairperson, Michael Beaumont, said on Monday.
Campbell has not taken kindly to the allegations levelled against her by ActionSA.
“ActionSA are free to leave the formal coalition should they wish to. We will continue to engage with them as we do with all parties represented in council,” she said through her spokesperson, Warren Gwilt.
Campbell said the party was disingenuous in its approach to leave the coalition while being aware of the problems which the multiparty government had inherited.
“ActionSA comments are both opportunistic and disingenuous. It is time to stop sniping and to start working hard to fix the mess we have inherited.”
Source: News24, Eyewitness News, Sowetan Live, Daily Maverick, image from Twitter: @MarciaBarron777