It’s official. ActionSA has ended its coalition relationship with the DA in Ekurhuleni. According to ActionSA National chairperson Michael Beaumont this decision was taken because of bad service delivery in the city. He announced this during the media briefing in Illovo, Johannesburg this morning and the decision follows DA’s Tania Campbell re-election as the mayor on Tuesday last week. Beaumont said the party even conducted a telephonic study to find out what do the people of Ekurhuleni need the party to do.
“Of particular importance was the assessment of the state of service delivery in Ekurhuleni. ActionSA’s Caucus in Ekurhuleni raised several serious concerns about basic service delivery regressing in the Metro, most notably in terms of the reliability of refuse removal, electricity, and water supply,” he said.
“To assess this situation ActionSA initiated a public poll, calling over 3000 residents of Ekurhuleni across various communities and demographics,” he said. Beaumont said the majority of people believed the metro was going in the wrong direction. “62% of respondents felt the Metro was going in the wrong direction over the last year, 82% felt service delivery had gotten worse (50%) or stayed the same (32%); and 57% did not trust the coalition to continue governing.”
He said information obtained from the survey corroborates serious concerns about basic service delivery not being suitably prioritised. “ActionSA has similarly voiced concerns frequently for the refusal of the coalition to allow local structures to secure most of the support that could defeat motions of no confidence and pass service delivery budgets. These concerns have been vindicated over the past few weeks.”
He said the party will also not be taking any positions in the executive. “ActionSA has resolved that we will not take up positions in the reconstituted Mayoral Committee being renegotiated by the multi-party coalition. We believe that we need to fight for better service delivery for all the residents of Ekurhuleni. “This requires us to give up executive positions and ensure we can fight encumbered by positions that co-opt our support”.
The party was heading the Public Safety and Health portfolio, Tlhogi Moseki was Member of the Mayoral Committee, (MMC) of Public Safety while Charlotte Zitha was of MMC of Health.
“Going forward ActionSA will form part of a voting bloc that will work to keep the ANC out of this Metro by defeating motions of no confidence and working to pass decisions that serve the service delivery needs of the residents of Ekurhuleni. We remain unequivocal in our commitment to keeping the ANC out of this and all other governments, but we cannot be complicit in failed service delivery.”
