Johannesburg – Former Johannesburg mayor and ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba claims he has rejected overtures from the ANC to form a coalition government in the country’s economic Hub.
Mashaba said he received a call from one of the ANC’s top six members proposing talks with the fledging party as it became apparent that the ANC would not muster an outright majority in Johannesburg.
“The party has done well to give the ANC a hard time in major metros such as Johannesburg, Ethekwini and Tshwane,” said Mashaba.
He was addressing journalists at the Independent Electoral Commission’s National Results Operations Centre.
At the time he was speaking, with 67% votes counted, the ANC sat at 31,65% of the vote, followed by the DA with 29% while ActionSA was emerged in the third position with 16%.
Mashaba’s party surpassed the EFF to the third position, with the latter gaining close 11%.
He gave an update on coalition talks, saying the party has received several calls from various parties.
“In terms of coalition, I want to make it clear, fellow South Africans, ActionSA will never go into a coalition with the ANC. We went all out to ask our supporters which party they will want us to be in coalition with, and they rejected the ANC, as they gave us the mandate to establish this powerful party that aim to serve them,” he said.
“ActionSA’s core values speaks of social justice. If anyone wants to talk to us as the party, we want to run a proper government, we are not a party that is going to serve certain constituencies,” he added.
Mashaba paid tribute to Ethekwini’s mayoral candidate Dr Makhosi Khoza, who has currently bagged over 10 000 votes in the country’s third largest city.
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