ActionSA founder and leader Herman Mashaba told Polity on Friday that the South African government has no political will to deal with the increasingly dangerous issue of hijacked and unsafe buildings in the City of Johannesburg (CoJ).   

Mashaba spoke with Polity to discuss the Johannesburg fire that claimed the lives 74 people, 12 of whom were children.

On Friday, President Cyril Ramaphosa visited the scene where he said government needed to act speedily to address housing shortages and the lack of essential services in Johannesburg's inner city.

Mashaba said the country was governed by a political enterprise “masquerading as a political party”, referring to the African National Congress (ANC). 

When asked why he thought it was difficult for government to solve the issue he said that South Africans must accept that the ruling government must be kicked out of power.

“We have a democratic responsibility, obligation and opportunity come the 2024 general elections to remove these criminals otherwise we will go down with them,” he warned. 

He said during his tenure as CoJ mayor he tried to resolve the issue of "hijacked buildings" but many South Africans accused him of being xenophobic.

On the issue of non-government organisations (NGOs) seeking court orders to stop government from evicting people from illegally occupied buildings, Mashaba said it was puzzling to see how human rights lawyers allowed people to live under such poor and dilapidated conditions. 

He said NGOs were making it difficult to resolve the issue and were allowing poor people to live under dangerous conditions.

“If you respect human rights there is no way that you will let human beings live under these conditions,” he said.

He questioned why national government and Parliament were not passing laws that declared property hijacking and the obstruction of property as high treason. He wanted those convicted of these crimes to serve 25 years with no chance of parole, to enforce the point that there was a hard stance taken on crime.

Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi has indicated that he is planning to launch a commission of inquiry into the cause of Thursday's deadly fire. Mashaba believes this is a waste of time and pointed out that when he was mayor he had made available a list of "hijacked buildings".

He said Lesufi was “delusional” and added that rather the Premier needed a plan to revitalise the CoJ and to bring back the rule of law.

Mashaba said the CoJ had been destroyed under the ANC’s watch.

COALITIONS

Discussing the Multi-Party Charter that ActionSA recently entered into with the Democratic Alliance (DA) and other parties, Mashaba said besides the urge to unseat the ANC at the upcoming polls, his party had realised that South Africa had entered into an era of coalitions.

However, he was aware that coalitions posed a challenge all over the world.

Mashaba said the DA was making it difficult to attract other parties into the grouping, as it has rejected any means of working with the Patriotic Alliance, which had, in turn, forced ActionSA to withdraw a motion of no confidence against Johannesburg Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda. 

He said ActionSA would do everything in its power to ensure it swayed as many parties as possible to unseat the ANC.

ActionSA recently celebrated three years in existence and as the 6th biggest party in the country.

Mashaba said this was just the beginning as his party is working hard to make sure that it has reach across the whole country.

Mashaba told Polity that his party was living up to its promise of its core value of being a non-racial party by attracting supporters from all parts of the country.

The party preparations for the 2024 elections are in full swing as ActionSA readies to hold its policy conference between September 12 and 14.

He said there were party branches opening all over South Africa.

“We are emerging as a serious player. We are going for a kill. We are going to emerge as a party to form a government either on our own or with other political parties sharing the same values as ours,” Mashaba stated.

Despite his party’s highest body rejecting his suggestion to bring back the death penalty, Mashaba believes that with the current state of crime in the country South Africa’s problems cannot be solved without the death penalty.

However, he said he understood why his idea was rejected, adding that his party had agreed that poor people would be the only victims of the death penalty as they would not be able to afford legal representation. 

“Under ActionSA, when you get a life sentence, it will be life sentence, hard labour, no chance of parole. Under ActionSA Thabo Bester is going to die in prison. He is not going to see the outside of prison for as long as he is alive,” Mashaba said.

He hopes that this will deter people from committing crime, accusing the ANC of essentially incentivising criminals.

”You will not have [such] criminals under ActionSA,” he promised.