SA will not be saved by lies or partnerships with the ANC

Let me be clear: I do not delight in what has happened to the DA, either before 2019 or afterward. It is bad for democracy and it is bad for future coalition arrangements when the official opposition, to quote Public Service Commission head Somadoda Fikeni, "is busy mutilating itself in a corner, unprovoked".

However, in an interview published last Sunday, John Steenhuisen made remarks that necessitate a response because they form part of an inherently dishonest effort to rewrite history in a way that is favourable to the "new DA" that emerged in October 2019.

It always begins with this idea that, somehow, I conjured up a coalition arrangement that depended on the EFF in Johannesburg. In truth, that decision was made by the DA's federal executive, of which I was not a part.

Those who were present inform me that the decision was both supported and strongly motivated by Steenhuisen. Now there is this effort to rewrite history in such a way that this decision was a mistake and one that can be used to scapegoat the previous leadership. It is dishonest of the current leadership to want to wash their hands of this decision.

Next, the narrative says that the coalition government in Johannesburg failed and was the cause of the DA's electoral declines. The best assessment of this statement lies in the 2019 campaign. I was inundated with calls that I needed to be more involved in the campaign because the party wanted to leverage our successes in Johannesburg. Countless posts on social media by the likes of Steenhuisen and former DA leader Helen Zille sought to claim ownership of our successes, from fighting corruption to delivering services.

It is worth noting that the DA's losses in Johannesburg were less than experienced elsewhere, in many cases even less than in those places governed through a DA majority. Now - when I have left the party and no longer serve the DA's agenda - the coalition was a colossal failure?

Then we move on to the favourite line of the DA: that I compromised to obtain the EFF's support in Johannesburg. Well, let me be unambiguous. There are two types of compromise. The first kind builds common ground in the service-delivery agenda of the residents.

This kind of compromise allowed me to see the benefit of insourcing security guards and cleaners in Johannesburg, providing them with a decent living wage, removing the profits from tenderpreneurs and containing spiralling contract costs. It also allowed me to leverage the EFF's support for the release of inner-city derelict buildings to the private sector - not exactly EFF policy either. This is what healthy coalition is all about.

It is worth noting that the DA's losses in Johannesburg were less than experienced elsewhere, in many cases even less than in those places governed through a DA majority

The second kind of compromise is the unethical kind that involves selling out residents in favour of holding together a coalition arrangement for one's own personal or political benefit. This is what the DA will try to convince you I did in Johannesburg.

I cannot prove a negative so perhaps consider this: it is ironic that the only party that ever discussed a tender with me was the DA; I am on record that a prominent DA personality approached me under false pretenses and sought to advocate for a certain company to do business with the city.

When I raised this matter, nothing was done about it. I remember thinking at the time that perhaps the only difference between the ANC and the DA is that the ANC has had more opportunity to be corrupt.

That the DA caucus was unhappy is true, but for different reasons than those suggested by Steenhuisen. The DA councillors, like much of the organization, did not want to be in government. They preferred the comforts of opposition, where you don't have to work as hard, be held accountable or communicate extensively with your residents.

Facilitators at a breakaway in 2019, realising the problem, polled the DA councillors in Johannesburg on whether or not they wanted to be in government - and 43% preferred to be in opposition. This sentiment demonstrates that the DA's giving up on the project to unseat the ANC wasn't limited to Steenhuisen's comments last Sunday - it is now established institutional culture.

Last Sunday, South Africans awoke to the DA communicating that it is open to working with the Ramaphosa faction of the ANC, the so-called "reformists". A couple of weeks before that, the EFF demonstrated at the Nkandla tea party that it would back the radical economic transformation faction of the ANC.

In a matter of just two weeks, South Africans, who want an alternative path for SA, saw these two parties throw 75% of the opposition behind two different factions of the ANC.

The truth is that to get SA working, to fix our economy and education system and to establish the rule of law, we need ethical leadership and committed public servants who will place the needs of residents above their own. This does not describe any member of the ANC, which puts party ahead of country at all times.

The truth is that to get SA working, to fix our economy and education system and to establish the rule of law, we need ethical leadership and committed public servants who will place the needs of residents above their own

This is why ActionSA has publicly recommitted itself to the project of being the alternative that SA needs to move forward as a country. We can, and must, build an inclusive and prosperous future for all South Africans. But we cannot do this in partnership with the ANC.

I believe that hope for SA is not lost. Daily I am inspired by the commitment of ActionSA's 160,000-plus volunteers, who work tirelessly to see our country succeed. These volunteers come from the vast, silent majority in SA who are good, law-abiding, peaceful, and freedom-loving people who love their country, hate what is being done to it, and want that to change.

This change is possible if we can mobilize all South Africans who make up the silent majority to act as one against the corruption and incompetence of the ANC.

We do not need to work with the ANC to save SA. We need to work together to remove them. That is the only way we will get SA on track.

• Mashaba is president of ActionSA