ActionSA has hinted at possibly holding an elective conference next year but equally says it is not a priority arguing that its mostly outsiders who are calling for it which it said was strange.
The party on Tuesday held a media briefing during which it announced that among others it had lodged a complaint with the IEC for the commission to probe the financial affairs of the Economic Freedom Fighters and uMkhonto Wesizwe Party whom it accuses of misrepresenting donations they received for funding their campaigns for the 2024 national and provincial elections.
The party also launched court action against the IEC in a bid to force it to investigate how the ANC settled its debt of more than R100 million to Ezuleni Investments when it had been having financial problems for some time but managed to pay off the account when the company secured a liquidation order that could see the liberation movement cease to exist ActionSA National Chairperson Michael Beaumont said the party was seeking transparency in both matters which it said was a requirement in a democracy but became worked up when asked about when the party will hold an elective conference in line with the same democratic principles it purports to promote. The EFF has been trolling the four year old party and its leader Herman Mashaba over its failure to hold an elective conference.
“we have a very clear road map towards an elective conference taking place in the first quarter of next year, we have initiated as a senate a number of processes and have the value chain leading branch launches and AGMs that ultimately will determine the representation to that elective conference but our constitution requires of us to have that elective conference within 9 months of the national and provincial elections of 2024 so there’s certainly no issue in that regard,” said Beaumont on possibilities of an elective conference.
Recently City of Tshwane mayor Celliers Brink suggested ActionSA national leadership may not have a mandate to collapse the current coalition in favour of a deal with the ANC and presumably with the EFF as well but Beaumont hit back saying there was a lot that is going on in the capital which Brink should be preoccupied with instead of “meddling in internal ActionSA affairs”.
“I always remark upon this with great interest that it appears outside of our party are more keen for us to have a conference than people inside of our party, you know we not dealing with a situation where there’s a rising tide of people saying this is a problem but people outside of our party want to control how ActionSA runs its internal democratic processes which I have always found incredibly strange especially by the way from the same EFF who I think’s internal democratic processes are very much on display of recent times and I think their elective conferences have widely been deemed to be nothing short of a rubber stamp and I think from our point of view let the EFF deal with the EFF and ActionSA will deal with ActionSA and let us each be held to that standard. We are quite confident that an elective conference next year will be a strong display of our party strength, our diversity, our commitment to fixing South Africa and all of that will be on display for you all to participate,” he said.
ActionSA national spokesperson Lerato Ngobeni even implied it could take much longer to hold the conference.
“An elective conference must be constituted by members and members in good standing and people who can stand on our behalf given our values, our constitution and people who can stand forthright and defend our organisation so those are processes that are underway,” said Ngobeni.
ActionSA membership remains unknown and when asked about it Ngobeni said the party was unable to provide Newsnote with figures as it has a new membership system in place.
“We have launched a new membership system, so no figures are available as yet,” she said.
The EFF which ActionSA believes operates in secrecy has already held two elective national conferences since its formation a little over a decade ago. The events called National People’s Assembly were held in 2014 and in 2019 while the next one is scheduled for December 2024.
Action SA is among a cocktail of heavily funded and newly formed centre-right political parties that have not held elective conferences which includes Mmusi Maimane’s Bosa and Rise Mzansi. Former President Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto Wesizwe Party which has had constant change of leadership has also not held an elective conference citing fear of infiltration.