It is back to the drawing board for ActionSA, whose numbers in the general elections do no mirror the performance of the party during the 2021 local government elections.
ActionSA president Herman Mashaba said after the party’s dismal showing its leaders would have to meet and focus their energy on the upcoming local government elections in 2026.
“I will be lying if I say I am happy with the results so far. We pushed ourselves and wanted to deliver bigger numbers but it was not to be.
“We will not commit suicide over this and I am not going to fire anyone. We will be meeting as early as Monday to discuss our way forward and we will regroup and say look guys, how do we improve because we have a solid base.
“Ours is now to focus our attention on the local government in 2026,“ Mashaba said.
Yesterday, Mashaba and members of his party, including national chairperson Michael Beaumont, visited the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) results centre in Midrand to make sense of the election results.
He also shook hands with other political leaders such as ANC chairperson Gwede Mantashe, who too is reeling from the less than ideal election results, which for the first time has seen the ANC lose KZN to the new-kid-on-the block, the MK Party (MKP) - which is backed by former president Jacob Zuma - who are set to take over the province.
Reacting to the numbers, Beaumont said that following a strong elections campaign across the country, even though it was disappointed to have not performed as well as the party did in the local government elections, there were many factors that affected the party's less than stellar performance at the polls.
Beaumont said these included budgetary constraints as well as the emergence of the MKP and other factors.
“ActionSA will not sugar coat the results. We believed a higher result will be achievable but we failed because there has never been an election like this one where the votes have been split in this way.
“There is no party that is happy outside of the MK Party and the Patriotic Alliance, who have done well. There is no question that the MK Party had an impact on elections generally and cost loses for support. This election has been an anti ANC protest election,” he said.
Earlier in the day, leader of the DA and a member of the Multi-Party Charter (MPC) alongside ActionSA, the Freedom Front Plus and ACDP, John Steenhuisen told reporters at the National Results Operations Centre in Midrand that he was disappointed with ActionSA’s performance.
“I am quite disappointed with ActionSA. They told us they will bring 10.56% but it does not seem like that will materialise and it’s obviously disappointing, but honestly it’s still early. I think we have to wait for other results to come in,” he said.
Reacting to this, Mashaba also said he was not happy with the DA and its performance in the elections.
As things stand, the DA had just gone over the two million mark with more than 62% of voting districts counted.
“I am also not happy with the DA and how it has performed. We must as leaders of the MPC have to go back to the drawing board. We are yet to have any discussions with other members of the MPC,” he said.
The Star
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