Durban — The new KwaZulu-Natal ActionSA provincial chairperson, Zwakele Mncwango, has vowed to bring back party members who resigned en masse from the party in August.
Speaking to the media after being formally introduced as the party’s new chairperson on Monday in Durban, Mncwango said his first task would be to bring back the members who had left.
He said after speculation that he was going to join ActionSA there were former members who called him saying if it was true he was joining the party, they would come back.
The former DA legislature chief whip said there were also members of other political parties in the province who called to encourage him to join ActionSA so they too can join under his leadership.
He said he believed people left ActionSA because there was a leadership vacuum.
“We are going to grow ActionSA in the province and I know how I would do it. Already, I’m getting calls from members and supporters of all political parties. People have lost hope and our duty as politicians is to bring hope to the people,” said Mncwango.
He said that, on reflection, he felt he should join a party that shared his values of pro-poor, like ActionSA.
Party national chairperson Michael Beaumont said what they liked about Mncwango was that he was a professional engineer and did not come to politics because he wanted a job.
He said the former DA provincial leader’s experience as having led at branch level right up to provincial leader was also the reason ActionSA felt he was good for the position since he was not new in provincial politics.
The party’s leader, Herman Mashaba, also thanked Mncwango for choosing his party, saying he had worked with him while he was a Johannesburg mayor. Mashaba said with Mncwango, he believed his party would lead a coalition government after the 2024 general elections. He vowed that ActionSA would emerge as the second-biggest party in the country in 2024.
Mncwango is the third party provincial chairperson within a year to be announced in the province. The party started on a high note, winning seats and wards after contesting the elections for the first time.
Problems started at the election of the eThekwini Municipality mayor, when the then-chairperson, Dr Makhosi Khoza, defied Mashaba’s instructions to vote for a DA mayoral candidate as per the coalition agreement.
The party fired Khoza and replaced her with little-known Musa Kubheka. He, too, did not last long and tendered his resignation after only six months.
It later emerged that he was pushed out after being accused by another party member of pointing at her with a firearm.
While the party was dealing with Kubheka and looking for his replacement, it was hit by mass resignations of regional leaders which eventually led to the resignation of provincial secretary Bongani Caluza, who accused the party of being racist and undermining his provincial leadership.
Caluza and other members have since formed their own party, Activists of South Africa.
Daily News