ActionSA to Launch Mayoral Candidate Process

ActionSA will officially launch its mayoral candidate selection process next week, with party leader and former Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba among the contenders vying to return to the city’s top seat.

Speaking at an event in the Johannesburg inner city this week, the party’s national chairperson, Michael Beaumont, said the campaign would focus on “the Mashaba legacy,” highlighting the achievements of Mashaba’s administration between 2016 and 2019.

“I am standing before the residents of Johannesburg today to say, we are going to travel the city with you. We are going to show you all the things that Herman Mashaba did in the three short years he was in office, and we are going to say to you, what would happen if you gave the party five years to continue that work in 2026,” said Beumont.

This is two weeks after Mashaba unveiled Television personality and anti-crime activist Xolani Khumalo as the candidate for Ekurhuleni, describing him as an “ethical leader.”

“As an activist, I run the Xolani Khumalo Foundation. For us to work, we rely on donations from companies and individuals. I went to ask for assistance from Mr Mashaba and he said, ‘You shouldn’t be asking for help, you should be working on a much broader scale,” Khumalo told broadcaster Newzroom Afrika.

Mashaba Legacy

Beaumont listed Mashaba’s achievements, which he said included redirecting R2 billion from “wasteful international travel and self-promoting advertising” toward infrastructure and service delivery.

“He resurfaced 900 kilometres of bad roads, facilitated R17 billion in investments, extended clinic hours, started five drug rehabilitation centres, and increased JMPD by 1,500 officers,” Beaumont said.

He added that Mashaba’s administration had achieved “the highest resident satisfaction levels in the city’s history at 74%,” while also building the largest electricity substation in the southern hemisphere, ‘under budget and on schedule.”

Beaumont said Mashaba’s record showed that he could lead complex coalitions and deliver results.

“If you’re looking for a leader or a party that has proven it can lead complicated coalitions that are stable and deliver, Herman Mashaba has demonstrated exactly that.

“We have a candidate selection process that says that when we initiate a process for a mayoral candidate selection, we need to open up applications. We’ll make a decision based on the applications and whatever goes down,” Beaumont said.

Gauteng chairperson Ngobeni on Mashaba

Gauteng chairperson Funzi Ngobeni said the launch would take place as part of the party’s “Mashaba Legacy Campaign,” revisiting key service delivery and urban renewal projects from Mashaba’s term.

He criticised the provincial and national governments for failing to follow through on promises to expropriate derelict buildings for public use.

“Recently, the president and the premier of this province committed to activating the expropriation law in terms of these buildings. It was earlier this year when the president made a commitment that they were going to invoke a section in the Constitution that would allow us to expropriate some of these buildings. But up until today, that program has not been implemented,” he said.

He said Mashaba had a clear plan to convert abandoned buildings into spaces that served communities.

“Some of these buildings we need to turn into student accommodation. Some of these buildings, we must give to small businesses so that they can be able to use them. Some of these buildings need to be set aside for human settlement,” Ngobeni said.

Ngobeni said Mashaba had initiated plans to repurpose derelict buildings into student accommodation, small business spaces, and affordable housing — but those plans were abandoned after his resignation in 2019.

“Some of these buildings need to be set aside for human settlement. That’s the kind of leadership the party will bring back to the city,” he said.