ActionSA has ruled out joining three other small parties in a coalition to contest next year’s local government elections, saying it was not being offered a big enough role.
ActionSA national chair Michael Beaumont told the Sunday Times this week that Mmusi Maimane, leader of Build One South Africa (Bosa), had been “a stumbling block” in talks on a partnership.
However the talks are continuing between the GOOD party, Rise Mzansi and Bosa to form a “multiparty charter 2.0", which will contest elections in strategic metros, including Cape Town, Johannesburg and Tshwane. The negotiations are said to have reached an advanced stage.
While the three parties enjoy relatively strong support from black and coloured voters, their hopes of recruiting ActionSA, which has substantial backing in the Gauteng metros, appear to have come to nothing.
Beaumont said Maimane — who, like him and ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba, is a former member of the DA — “would like to be the largest fish in a very small pond”.
Beaumont said his party was no longer part of the coalition talks, but the other three parties might have firmed up arrangements among themselves.
I suspect following ActionSA distancing ourselves from this discussion, there’s been progress between these parties
— Michael Beaumont, ActionSA national chair
“I suspect following ActionSA distancing ourselves from this discussion, there’s been progress between these parties. I wouldn’t be the best person to ... say what these parties have agreed on.
“What I would be able to say is why ActionSA is not among them in respect to this particular moment, and it comes down largely to the engagements we had in which Bosa, in particular, became a stumbling block to discussions,” said Beaumont.
“They wanted to negate any principle of proportionality in these political parties coming together, and wanted to impose the idea that ActionSA should be 25% of the decision-making structure, notwithstanding the fact that we are nearly 60% of the actual votes coming to this arrangement.”
Beaumont said the negotiations had ignored policy alignment between the organisations.
“It’s well and good to say we’re approaching a local government election, which is more easily agreeable, but you don’t merge for one election,” he said.
Looking ahead to 2029 and issues such as foreign relations, immigration and economic transformation, “there was seemingly an inability on their part to be able to address the very large policy gaps that were between us. From our point of view, that was a huge setback.”
Maimane and Mashaba were allies during their time in the DA. Mashaba, who was DA mayor of Johannesburg, resigned from the party due to differences with Helen Zille.
Maimane, who was leader of the DA at the time of the 2019 election, quit after he was blamed for the party’s poor showing that year. Maimane and Mashaba explored the possibility of establishing their own party together, but nothing came of it.
The four small parties are hoping to gain enough support in the polls next year to give them leverage with the ANC or the DA.
GOOD and Rise Mzansi are both in the 10-party government of national unity on the strength of their performance in last year’s national election, but they will need bigger percentages next year to cement their GNU roles.
The election last year was the first that Bosa has taken part in, and it won two National Assembly seats. GOOD, led by tourism minister Patricia de Lille, is hoping to retain positions in the Cape Town metro and expand in other municipalities.
Rise Mzansi, led by Songezo Zibi, will be contesting local government elections for the first time. The party has two seats in the National Assembly.
Rise Mzansi spokesperson Mabine Seabe confirmed the party was discussing collaboration with others ahead of the 2026 elections.
“We have been talking to a number of political parties about coming together behind a common electoral and political programme, but this work needs leaders who are willing to collaborate and build a genuinely new, unifying and progressive political proposition.”
Maimane said Bosa would issue a statement on the coalition issue sometime in the future.
The initial multiparty charter, which arose out of DA leader John Steenhuisen’s idea of a “moonshot pact”, collapsed shortly after the 2024 elections when the member parties failed to gain enough votes to unseat the ANC. The DA and two other charter members, the FF+ and the IFP, entered talks with the ANC on forming the GNU.
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