The DA and ActionSA have begun talks to remove the governing ANC from power during the national and provincial elections in 2024.
ActionSA national spokesperson Lerato Ngobeni confirmed in a statement on Friday that party leader Herman Mashaba and John Steenhuisen, the leader of the official opposition, met over a cup of tea on Thursday for a “long overdue bilateral meeting” to discuss matters of political importance, including President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala game farm saga.
“The meeting involved assessing the current state of politics in the country in lieu of recent events relating to president Ramaphosa and discussions around electoral pathways to removing the ANC from office in the 2024 national and provincial elections,” Ngobeni said in the statement.
“Both parties reflected on the past year of local government coalitions, recognising the need to stabilise the municipalities which the two parties are involved in coalition government. It was recognised that more needed to be done to build confidence in the prospects of successful national and provincial coalition alternatives to failed ANC governments.
“A commitment was made by both parties to collaborate with other like-minded political parties ahead of the 2024 national and provincial elections with a view to galvanizing South Africans behind a viable alternative to the ANC.”
With the country faced with successive energy crises and the emergence of the Phala Phala farm saga, Ngobeni said Mashaba and Steenhuisen have agreed to collaborate ahead of the elections in an attempt to provide South Africans with what they have referred to as “an alternative to the ANC”.
“Both parties resolved to [start] a process that is going to facilitate better collaboration while recognising the need to strongly differ from time-to-time on the kinds of solutions needed to turn South Africa around.
“With a president implicated in wrongdoing, and a country in the depression of stage-six loadshedding, both parties agree that it has never been more important for like-minded political parties to collaborate to provide South Africans with a viable alternative to the ANC,” she said.
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