ActionSA announced on Monday former African National Congress (ANC) member Sello Lediga as the party’s new Limpopo provincial chairperson.

ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba said leadership appointments in the party, such as Lediga’s, were critical to bring down the ANC and forming a new alternative in South Africa. 

Lediga resigned from the ANC in 2014.

He served on the executive of his branch in Nchabeleng, in the Sekhukhune district in Limpopo, led by ANC stalwart Lawrence Phokanoka from 1990. He was appointed by the ANC top 6 in 2013 to form part of a task team after Cassel Mathale’s provincial executive committee was placed under administration.

Lediga was Limpopo provincial spokesperson and worked with former ANC spokesperson Keith Khoza and former Minister in the Presidency Jackson Mthembu on the ANC’s National Communications Committee. Lediga also served under the leadership of Premier Ngoako Ramatlhodi.

“We are emerging as a party with national impact, and we are developing structures, wall-to-wall, throughout South Africa that will deliver our 2024 offer to the doorsteps of all South Africans. We continue to build a party that is truly multi-racial, winning support in all communities across South Africa and we can demonstrate how ActionSA is growing rapidly in rural communities just like it is in the cities of our country,” Mashaba said.

According to him, ActionSA focused on contestation of only six out of 278 municipalities in South Africa because of the limited time the party had to prepare for the 2021 local government elections.

He said ActionSA hoped to make an impact in all nine provinces. 

ActionSA leadership recently toured Limpopo to consult its structures on Lediga’s appointment and has also engaged communities in Bela-Bela. The party also spoke with communities in Polokwane, Seshego, Thohoyandou and Giyani.

Meanwhile, Mashaba said the party had proven its ability to win support away from the ANC.

“The culture of opposition parties fighting for the same pool of votes cannot advance the project to remove the ANC from government. We welcome supporters of the ANC to join our project to Fix South Africa - our issue does not lie with them but their leaders. Leadership like Sello Lediga joining ActionSA is critical to this project of bringing down the ANC and forming a new alternative in South Africa,” he said.