ActionSA is now an official opposition party at the Zeerust-based Ramotshere Moiloa Local Municipality council in the North West, following its extraordinary victory against fierce competition in an ANC rural stronghold of Ward 7 in Mokgola village.
Moses ‘Moshe’ Moumakwa is now a new councilor of the ward which was previously held by the ANC following the 2021 local government elections.
The five-year old party snatched a seat previously held by the ANC in the 2021 municipal elections, securing 33.49% of the total votes cast, compared to 57.38% during the 2021 polls with a voter turnout of 60.40%.
ActionSA’s National Chairman Michael Beaumont told YOUFM Newshour that the victory highlights the party’s growing strength and readiness to broaden its appeal across both rural and urban communities.
“There has been a reorganizing of our branches across the country and the North West has been the second-best province for ActionSA only behind Gauteng.
There’s a clear and strong appetite here, and ActionSA branches are forming in rapid numbers in that province which is why we have been able to mount a campaign of this nature.
If there wasn’t a branch formed in Ward 7 in Ramotshere Moiloa we wouldn’t have won this by-election, and I think it’s testament of what our structures are doing on the ground,” said Beaumont.
He however acknowledged that the victory didn’t come easy particularly against the ANC and other political parties that have been contesting the space for some time now.
“Certainly, look at the record of the ANC in this municipality, it has never lost a ward to any other party in local government democracy and the fact that ActionSA as a young political party is the first to take a ward, just demonstrates that inroads are being made but it has taken time.
We had to work hard to develop that kind of capacity including forming a partnership with Forum4Service Delivery (F4SD) that has given us an injection of energy, capacity and clearly that has paid dividends in terms of our ability to show the people of this ward,” explained the national chairman.
Beaumont lauded the party’s green umbrella initiative for inviting like-minded parties like F4SD to work together in changing the people’s lives.
“We have increased an enormous amount of capacity in four different provinces arising from that arrangement, but it is also important to say that the big green umbrella has continued.
We’ve been able to bring in eight other political parties in five other provinces and ActionSA has had a deliberate programme to simulate smaller local government parties because the ballot papers are too long.
To be competitive in local government elections you have to have councillors that can service its communities in a run up to those elections and that is what ActionSA is doing,” remarked Beaumont.
ActionSA has now taken over as an official opposition party at the Zeerust-based municipality, led by ANC with 22 of the 37 seats.
“When you add Moumakwe to that equation we are now the official opposition.
We are the second biggest party in that council now and we will use those numbers to ensure that he is supported as you correctly said we have a member of the provincial legislature, we will use that seat to ensure that he gets all the support he possibly does.
We have six seats in the National Assembly, so we are now a party that is represented in all three tiers of government due to residents of that ward.
We are going to service them with the standard that has become expected from ActionSA from the likes of Dr. Nasiphi Moya, and people like Herman Mashaba and Athol Trollip.
This is the track record that Action SA puts on the table for leaders who fixed broken municipalities,” said Beaumont.
