By Jonk wa Mashamba
news@alexreporter.co.za
ActionSA is ironically an infant political party. But its presence arguably creates thunderstorms, whenever its people move around.
That was proven when recently it painted Alexandra township, extension 7, with green color.
The party, with its color and revered faces, can be mistaken to promise greener pastures!
Residents were happy to see Shadrack Mkhonto who recently divorced the DA as its PR councillor and vowed to take with him region E’s wards 105 and 116 DA members to ActionSA.
Mkhonto was not alone in his tour in Alex recently.
Amongst others, he was with the former Joburg Metro Police chief, David Tembe.
(https://twitter.com/AsktheChief01/status/1383354998508060679?s=09)
And the famous faces made it easier for the residents to understand that ActionSA was not a baby party.
Tembe is a darling of the people, and that was evidently seen in Alex.
Mashaba, through his People’s Dialogue, was behind Tembe when his appointment as a top cop in the economic hub was massively scrutinized.
This follows a severely critical draft selection findings made by the Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane about Tembe’s suitability as JMPD head.
Mkhwebane’s report had argued that the post advertisement for chief of the JMPD required a candidate to have Bachelor’s degree or an equivalent qualification, which Tembe apparently didn’t possess.
The jovial Mkhonto, who always calls himself the councillor without boarders, said the event was a success
“Thirty three of my activists attended and former chief of Metro police (Tembe) was there.
“He walked with us on the streets of extension 7 where he personally engaged the residents and signed about 10 new members to join the ActionSA.
“Some residents were filled with joy to see the chief (Tembe) on the street walking with us,” said Mkhonto.
The mayor of Alex, as, Mkhonto is affectionately known, said they started with a door- to- door at about 10 am and finished at 12h30.
“We managed to sign up 203 members and 135 supporters, those who don’t want to become members, but do support the idea of participating in the process of electing the ActionSA candidates.
“In other words, those people endorse me as the ActionSA candidate. This means they will vote for me when we do our internal systems of electing ward candidates in June.
“I feel very happy to see how people are so positive and are tired about what is happening in the governing party, the ANC.
“People need change, and I think this time around they will make changes through their votes. I will be surprised if the ANC can win and win with large numbers of votes.”
Mkhonto said he believes the ActionSA will bring change that people need.
“And there is no doubt, people have seen how Mashaba was governing the City of Johannesburg. So there’s a proven record that ActionSA might change many things.”
Mashaba has recently announced that ActionSA – in addition to Johannesburg, Tswane and Ekurhuleni – will also contest for power in eThekwini.
He told SowetanLive that he was willing to work with other political parties, including his former home, DA, against the ANC.
“We will work with everybody else in municipal government, but not the ANC.”
