ActionSA MP Dereleen James says she would gladly accept the opportunity to stand as her party’s first Cape Town mayoral candidate.
James, an Eldorado Park community activist who was announced as the party’s Western Cape leader last week, believes that her crime-fighting background is just what the province needs.
“There is a crisis unfolding in the Western Cape in terms of the high crime rate,” she told the Sunday Times.
“ActionSA’s policies speak to declaring corruption and crime public enemy No 1. If we were to identify a province that needs the implementation of our policies, it is the Western Cape, and the Cape Flats in particular.”
James said her Gauteng background does not mean she will not understand the needs of Western Cape residents, as conditions in the Cape Flats were the same as in Eldorado Park.
“Services are being provided in the Western Cape, but only to a select few communities. Walking in Lentegeur in Mitchells Plain, it literally felt as though I had left Cape Town and I’m back in Eldorado Park.
“There is absolutely no difference in terms of services; the rats were running through heaped piles of dirt. It literally mirrored the community that I hail from. I decided, ‘You know what, we need to give this our all.’ For too long, areas such as Khayelitsha, Nyanga, we wake up to the news of mass killings. Cape Town is a well-run city, but only for a few.”
James, who was sworn in as an MP in 2024, said her membership of the police portfolio committee in parliament has opened her eyes.
“I have been privy to reports about how drugs are being trafficked. For years in Eldorado Park we’ve been knocking on doors, we have been giving addresses of drug dealers and wondering why nothing is being done about it and why our efforts were not yielding real impact on the ground. Studies show that a lot of these drugs get transported from the Western Cape.”
James believes the only way to clamp down on the influx of illegal drugs into the country is to block them at the source, which she says is the ports of the Western Cape.
“We need to close the tap ... that is open in the Western Cape when it comes to drugs. This is why my years of experience as an activist finally make sense. If we want to see an impact in the drug-infested communities, we need to start in the Western Cape where the harbours have these containers coming in.
“We’ve also heard Gen [Nhlanhla] Mkhwanazi speaking about these containers, where one comes in and doesn’t get searched.”
James has gained attention with her strident remarks in the ad hoc committee investigating the allegations of police corruption that Mkhwanazi made in July last year.
She said the accusations by committee witnesses that some police top brass are hand in glove with drug dealers made her furious.
So with that came a lot of anger and having to ... face the harsh reality of the people that you entrusted and thought were in your corner are actually the people that were supplying the drugs to your community
— Dereleen James
“Some were complaining about the screaming and the shouting, but my anger is genuine. My anger is based on the many failed attempts by us as activists in communities, sending messages to the likes of Gen Shadrack Sibiya, reporting drug lords, only to find that they are [allegedly] embroiled in these scandals and cartels.”
Sibiya, the deputy national commissioner of police, has been suspended due to the corruption allegations against him.
“So with that came a lot of anger and having to ... face the harsh reality of the people that you entrusted and thought were in your corner are actually the people that were supplying the drugs to your community. What people saw in the ad hoc committee was genuine anger and genuine frustration.”
ActionSA has not said if or when it will name a mayoral candidate for Cape Town, but James said supporters were clamouring for her to run.
“I’ve had so many requests, I am inundated every day. Even when I go to the mall, people ask me to run for mayor. I’ve been toying with the idea in terms of where my voice would be best amplified and to have a space to make an impact.
“Should the party and residents of the Western Cape feel that this is what they want and there is a strong call for me, I will go for it,” James said.
In the last local government elections in 2021, ActionSA did not contest any wards in Cape Town. The DA won 58% of the vote in the metro.
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