ActionSA founder and leader Herman Mashaba asserted on Tuesday that his party can fix South Africa, as ActionSA hosts its maiden policy conference in Johannesburg this week.

While addressing the 614 delegates gathered to discuss the party’s policies over the next three days, the South African businessman-turned-politician said his party was a home for all South Africans.

The leader of the sixth biggest political party in South Africa said South Africans needed hope.

“We do not need political parties to tell us what is wrong with our country. We all live with these challenges on a daily basis and know them all too well."

Mashaba said he was humbled by ActionSA’s growth.

“I am humbled by the speed at which we are building a rational and reasonable political home for all South Africans across the nine provinces of our country. Two weeks ago, ActionSA turned three-years-old. On the day we launched, in the midst of a global pandemic, you could have sat the members of ActionSA around this main table here behind me. Yet, just three years later, I stand before you with the more than 600 delegates, who have travelled from each of the nine provinces to an ActionSA Policy Conference, and who represent just a fraction of our diverse membership," he said.

The ActionSA leader said central to the outcomes of the policy conference must be a clear way forward to grow the South African economy and create jobs.

He stressed the need for economic certainty in policy, an economic stimulus to move the country's economy forward, and an altogether new approach to small businesses.

He is mindful that a growing economy cannot continue to reflect South Africa's unjust legacy and that it must transform it.

"ActionSA is unapologetic in our recognition of the continued correlation between race and access to opportunity and quality services in South Africa. In addressing these challenges, we cannot be colour-blind in our approach. While working towards a non-racial future, we must proactively work to address the legacy of racial exclusion,” he said.

Mashaba said his party would not waste time apportioning blame for the predicament in which the country found itself in, as South Africans “know who has governed for the past 29 years”, with unemployment reaching all-time highs, Stage 6 loadshedding becoming the norm, and South Africa becoming the most unequal country in the world.

Mashaba made it clear that ActionSA would also not place blame on immigrants as he assured South Africans that the party would present a strong migrant proposal that occupies the rational, middle ground on this important issue.

Mashaba reiterated his unwillingness to work with the ruling African National Congress but said if that ever happened his party should rather recall him.

He reminded delegates that young South Africans were in need of skills development while communities were protected from criminals.

He promised an inclusive and prosperous nation, built by his party.

He hit back against suggestions that he was just a businessman with no political knowledge and argued that his business was still popular and his story was exceptional.

Mashaba told delegates that ActionSA wanted to build a South Africa with a government that did not stand in the way of prosperity, but which was an active participant in creating it.

He stressed that his dream was for communities to be protected from criminals and a South Africa with electricity.