Following a fallout with the DA in Gauteng, ActionSA is eyeing control of Tshwane, promising two MMC positions to the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and a speaker role and two other positions to the ANC once the motion against Brink is passed.

With the EFF in agreement with ActionSA, they await the go-ahead from ANC, which is concerned about being in a leadership position in the metro ahead of the 2026 local government elections because of its financial instability, service delivery issues and administrative difficulties. 

After several days of meetings between the ANC national leadership and its Gauteng structures, chief whip Mdumiseni Ntuli told the Mail & Guardian this week that the party was hesitant to take ownership of Tshwane in its current state. 

The metro’s financial management and governance problems have been widely reported.

“We are reflecting on whether it’s worth it for the ANC to inherit a struggling municipality. Can we recover it before the next local government elections? Will this be used against us in future campaigns, especially in 2026, if we inherit a municipality that’s on its knees?” he said.

Rather than rushing to get leadership positions, the party was weighing whether the coalition with ActionSA would benefit it.

“We have a broader objective of contesting for power, not just appointing comrades to positions. It’s a difficult issue that leadership must address. It’s not just about installing a mayor; it’s about whether that mayor will serve the people effectively.”

ActionSA’s previous coalition with the DA was marred by disagreements over governance and service delivery. The strained relationship between the two, who once worked together to prevent the ANC from controlling key metros, has now led ActionSA to seek alternative alliances.

Last month, party leader Herman Mashaba announced plans to form a coalition with the ANC and EFF to govern Gauteng metros — an agreement that saw the ANC regain power in the City of Johannesburg — if they agreed to vote together to remove Brink.

The motion was initially expected to be tabled on 30 August but was withdrawn by the ANC after Brink approached the Pretoria high court to challenge its legality, citing procedural irregularities.

If the vote of no confidence is successful, it will pave the way for ActionSA to lead the metro with the support of the ANC, African Christian Democratic Party and EFF.

ActionSA national chairperson Michael Beaumont told the M&G that the planned agreement aims to establish a new governance structure in Tshwane, shifting the balance of power away from the DA.

“The DA’s actions undermined the coalition by ignoring requests to address challenges faced by the marginalised communities in the city,” he said.

“The reality is that the last eight years the city of Tshwane has had a number of very serious issues … many of them in the first five years, which saw among other things the awarding [of a] tender to Edwin Sodi, the refusal to investigate that particular tender or recently the reversals in the auditor general’s reports associated with the city.

“The city remains in enormous debt to Eskom and constantly at risk of being shut off and these are situations that are persisting and the DA cannot continue to tell the residents of Tshwane that this is the legacy of the previous government. Eight years is a long time to govern and not see improvement.”

Beaumont said the idea of an ActionSA mayorship was “mentioned in passing” in discussions so far and would be dealt with after the party decides whether to terminate its membership as part of the multi-party government in the city.

He could not be drawn on when the process is expected to end, noting that the review process required negotiations with the multi-party partners.

ANC regional secretary George Matjila confirmed that discussions about positions had taken place, but a final decision would be taken by the party’s national leadership. 

“The speaker will come from the ANC. The MMC positions will be ActionSA, ANC and EFF, but it will depend on what becomes the final arrangement with the smaller parties,” Matjila said.

Last week auditor general Tsakani Maluleke said Tshwane had improved its outcome from an adverse audit opinion to a qualified opinion by taking steps to implement prior-year audit recommendations.

EFF regional chairperson Obakeng Ramabodu said the party would vote for the removal of the DA from power. “We eagerly anticipate our meeting on the 26th where we will continue our call for true freedom and justice for the city of Tshwane.” 

The DA has pushed back by approaching the ANC to enter a “stability agreement” through which neither party would back a motion of no confidence in the other’s officials at city level. It is not clear whether this is adding to the ANC’s reluctance to close the deal with ActionSA and the EFF to take control of the city.

“The DA has instructed its lawyers to continue to prepare for court action on both the process leading to the adoption of the Bela Bill, as well as its substance, on constitutional grounds,” DA leader John Steenhuisen said in response to the president’s announcement.

Ramaphosa signed the Bela Bill into law on Friday but said he will delay the implementation of two clauses — clauses 4 and 5 — for three months for negotiations with parties in the government of national unity (GNU) who have rejected its contents.

Ramaphosa’s move is an attempt to create some breathing space for both himself and the DA over the Bill, the signing of which was boycotted by Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube.

On Thursday, Ramaphosa and Steenhuisen publicly allayed fears that tensions of the Bill could collapse the GNU ahead of the signing of the Bill, and the president’s opening of a window for negotiation in his speech at the signing indicates his intention to allow the  parties a chance to find each other over the next three months.

But Steenhuisen said in a statement responding to the president’s announcement that the DA would now go the legal route and have the Bill declared unconstitutional.

In his address at the signing, Ramaphosa said he had decided to use his prerogative as president to open a “window” for negotiations around the two clauses after being approached by a number of parties shortly before the signing.

Although he had not agreed to stop the signing, as they had requested, he had decided on the compromise to try to seek resolution to the impasse over the Bill.

“This will give the parties time to deliberate on these issues and make proposals on how the different views may be accommodated,” Ramaphosa said. 

“Should the parties not be able to agree on an approach, then we will proceed with the implementation of these parts of the Bill,” he said.

But Steenhuisen has rejected this, referring to it as a “threat”, and said the approach is “contrary to the spirit of the statement of intent that formed the foundation of the GNU, which requires the participating parties to reach “sufficient consensus on divisive issues”.

He further accused the ANC of “violating the constitutional rights of parents and governing bodies in functional schools”.

The Bela Bill suggests strengthening oversight of school governing bodies. 

Hours before the ceremony, Gwarube issued a statement saying she had written to Ramaphosa to notify him that she could not attend the ceremony until her concerns regarding the Bill were rectified.

Gwarube said she was always and remains opposed to the Bill in its current form and has requested that Ramaphosa to refer it back to parliament for reconsideration regarding section 79 of the Constitution.

This is despite her being the minister who is expected to ensure the Bill is implemented in schools.   

But she has also previously said she will adhere to her mandate as a minister and expeditiously implement “aspects” of the Bill should it be signed into law. 

“The Bill is the brainchild of the department that I lead and so if the president signs the Bill then we have to get on with the business of governing and implementing it,” Gwarube previously told the Mail & Guardian .

The Bill was tabled by former education minister Angie Motshekga and seeks to amend the South African Schools Act of 1996 and the Employment of Educators Act of 1998.

Clause 4 of the Bela Bill gives greater control over admissions policy to the department of education, rather than the school and also compels the school to admit and educate children who might not have the necessary documentation.

Clause 5 states that the school’s governing body must submit the language policy of a public school and any amendment thereof to the provincial head of department for approval.

Advocacy group Section 27 has hailed the clauses as “progressive changes to the Schools Act” and added that no learner should be denied the right to an education based on their citizenship status. 

Steenhuisen said that although the president had delayed the implementation date, he had also said the Bill would be implemented after three months if they failed to agree on the two clauses.

“This means that if there is no agreement, the ANC will proceed with implementing the clauses that empower provincial departments to override school governing bodies on the issue of the language policy of schools,” Steenhuisen said. “The DA rejects this threat by the president.”

Steenhuisen said they regarded this approach as contrary to the spirit of the statement of intent signed among the GNU partners, which required the parties to reach sufficient consensus on divisive issues.

The Bill also makes grade R compulsory. 

In addition it proposes measures to prevent the unnecessary disruption of schooling by protests or other causes and to criminalise such actions. And it will introduce penalties for parents who keep their children out of school for extended periods.

And the Bill addresses aspects of homeschooling, requiring parents to register their children with the department and specify the curriculum being used. It mandates independent assessments to monitor the children’s progress. 

It also offers an expansive definition of corporal punishment to include “any acts which seek to belittle, humiliate, threaten, induce fear or ridicule the dignity and person of a learner”.

In the 29 May general elections, the MK party received 26.36% of votes from the ward, but in Wednesday’s by-elections, this dropped significantly to 14.51% of the votes. The ANC further slumped from the 28.9% it received in May to 4.93% this week, while the Democratic Alliance (DA) more than doubled its support from 39.21% to 80.56%.

The Economic Freedom Fighters did not contest the ward, or any of the three other eThekwini wards in which by-elections were held on Wednesday.

A total of 23 by-elections took place in 14 municipalities IN Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Limpopo and North West.

In KwaZulu-Natal, nine by-elections were held IN nine municipalities, seven of these were as a result of resignations by councillors who have assumed seats in the provincial legislature. Two vacancies occurred because the incumbents died.

KwaZulu-Natal electoral officer Futhi Masinga said the voter turnout was “not great”, averaging 40%. The lowest turnout was in eThekwini metro, at just 19%.

The province’s highest turnout was in the Mooi Mpofana municipality (54%) and Ray Nkonyeni municipality (52%), where the MK party won the only ward it took this week.

The DA retained five seats in the province, the ANC two seats and the Inkatha Freedom party retained ward four in Nkandla.

Masinga said that there had been no problems reported to the Electoral Commission of South Africa by the parties, which had until 5pm last Friday to raise any issues that might have had a material effect on the outcome of the by-elections.

After the MK party’s surprise by-election victory in Photsaneng in North West two weeks ago, the ANC in Gauteng took no chances and brought out its top guns to campaign for the party in Soweto, Lenasia and Mogale City on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The ANC won two of the three wards it contested in Gauteng, with the third being won by Al Jama-ah in Lenasia. 

ANC first deputy secretary general Nomvula Mokonyane campaigned for the party in Soweto and Mogale City on Tuesday, while the party sent its provincial and regional leaders for the final push for votes in ward 21 in Tladi-Moletsane on Wednesday.

Among the leaders sent to counter the MK threat were Gauteng ANC chair Panyaza Lesufi, provincial secretary TK Nciza, Johannesburg regional leader Dada Morero and Johannesburg regional secretary Sasabone Manganyi.

On Tuesday night, the MK party’s national organiser, Floyd Shivambu, told supporters in eThekwini who were campaigning for the ward 33 by-election that the process of small parties deregistering and joining Jacob Zuma‘s party had begun. He said four parties had already done so, and more were set to follow.

“I can assure you that before the end of the year, we’re going to have many other political parties including some that even have seats in parliament that are going to fold into uMkhonto weSizwe so that we can form one united front of progressive forces,” Shivambu said.

“President Zuma says a simple thing — that the reason why we were under colonialism is because the settlers fought us as separate small groups. We were never united as black people. They fought us and defeated us as small groups, and then later on they combined all of us and said they were in charge of us.”

Shivambu said parties should not make a similar mistake by fighting in different corners when there was already a revolutionary progressive platform “which we must consolidate to fight for total emancipation, for total freedom, that is the struggle we are signing up for”.

Former Johannesburg speaker and former South African Rainbow Alliance (Sara) president Colleen Makhubele said she had dumped her party in favour of the MK party because of the response of voters to it.

Makhubele said many of the small parties that had contested the 29 May general elections were “saying the same thing” and it was now time for “consolidating” and for black parties to put aside their egos and come together.

“People have responded to what MK stands for. Our parties could not even get seats. Over 26 parties on a ballot paper are sitting at home now, the electorate rejected them. Even those who had millions of funding maybe even got one seat which will not have an impact anywhere,” she said.

Former Xivula president Bongani Baloyi, who also collapsed his party to join the MK party, said he had done so because he saw it an alternative to the ANC and that smaller parties could help build it into a “solid force”.

Baloyi said ego and contestation for positions would not be an issue because he and other leaders had voluntarily deregistered their parties and joined the MK party.

“I don’t see the issues of egos being there. When you work with people, you are bound to have differences with people, but I think here the cause resonates better with us and many leaders,” Baloyi said, adding that it was “unfair” to judge former critics of Zuma who have now joined his party.

“If four million million people saw the value in the MK party, we see the value as well,” he said.

During Baloyi’s introduction as an MK member in Soweto last week, some of the party members present raised concerns that people like him would be parachuted into senior positions, elbowing out those who had been mobilising for it during the elections. 

The party has recently sent former Eskom chief executive Brian Molefe and former Transnet head Lucky Montana, both of whom are named in the state capture report, as well as impeached judge president John Hlophe and former Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) MP Mzwanele Manyi to represent it in parliament.

Baloyi said people should not be “disheartened” because the party needed to have broad appeal and to attract “as many talented individuals as possible because different people will play different roles”.

“The revolution needs people of different credentials and talents as we are approaching key stages and attracting those. It should be welcomed and celebrated,” he said. “There have to be warm bodies to assist and grow the party and structures of the party.”

In Soweto last week, Baloyi said he would decline any offer to go to parliament or the provincial legislature because he wanted to work on the ground. 

The MK party also contested a significant number of this week’s 23 by-elections around the country to replace councillors who had resigned to move to provincial legislatures.

The party won its first by-election outside KwaZulu-Natal two weeks ago when it took Photsaneng in North West, trouncing both the EFF and the ANC.

The ANC brought out its big guns in response in Soweto, ahead of the ward 21 contest there.

Among the leaders sent to counter the MK threat were Gauteng ANC chair Panyaza Lesufi, provincial secretary TK Nciza, Johannesburg regional leader Dada Morero and Johannesburg regional secretary Sasabone Manganyi. 

The EFF, Patriotic Alliance, MK party and the ANC were all visible in the ward, placing gazebos outside the voting station.

“MK party is not the first organisation to want to collaborate with other parties and remove the ANC,” Nciza said.

He said the ANC knew where it had dropped the ball and was committed to regaining the ground it had lost.

Morero said the ANC was taking by-elections seriously and that leaders from all levels, including second deputy secretary general Nomvuala Mokonyane, had been deployed to campaign in the last week.

“We have taken a view that we must win these wards,” Morero said.

In addition to taking votes from the ANC, EFF and Inkatha Freedom Party at national, provincial and municipal level, the MK party has contested the latest round of student representative council (SRC) elections at institutions of higher learning.

But in Gauteng, North West, the Free State and Limpopo, the party’s entry into student politics had little effect on the EFF student command and the ANC-aligned South African Student Congress (Sasco), taking only one SRC seat at the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT).

EFF student command president Sihle Lonzi said that although MK had made some progress, his party was “not worried” about its rise on campuses.

“They didn’t find expression in the University of Free State, University of Limpopo, North West University Mafikeng campus. They only found expression at TUT in Soshanguve particular and a few of the other campuses. For us now there is no scientific indicator that says we should be worried,” Lonzi said.

Lonzi said the MK student movement had come third after Sasco and the EFF at the Elangeni TVET college in KwaZulu-Natal and his party looked forward, with confidence, to the results from the Mangosuthu University of Technology, University of KwaZulu-Natal and the University of Zululand.

“We are not worried at all about the MK party in higher education. We still believe the student movement of the EFF still enjoys a very huge and life hegemony over the young people in South Africa,” Lonzi said.

Baloyi said the performance of the MK party student movement was going to “shock a lot of people” and the youth saw it as a credible alternative future of the country.

“When young people are joining it confirms all of this and that actually, uMkhonto weSizwe [party] is on the right path. We are hopeful that we are going to see more than what we are seeing now,” he said.

“Having experienced people like Floyd Shivambu leading mobilisation, coordination and structures of the party is going to yield the type of growth we are seeing. The 2026 election is going to be a further indication that uMkhonto weSizwe [party] is going to take government in 2029.”

They have asked Luthuli House to remove Mtolo over “unbecoming behaviour” which they say has soured relations with alliance partners and key provincial institutions.

Last week youth league provincial task team leader Lulama Mabunda wrote to ANC  secretary general Fikile Mbalula asking the party to remove Mtolo from his position over his actions, which they argue is part of the reason the party lost the province. 

“Over recent months, there have been growing concerns within the rank and file regarding the leadership style and conduct of Cde Mtolo. His actions and decisions have increasingly caused division and discontent among members, particularly in critical regions such as eThekwini,” Mabunda wrote in the letter, a copy of which the Mail & Guardian has seen.

“As the youth league, we have observed instances of leadership that seem to run contrary to the core values of the ANC, including transparency, inclusivity and accountability.”

KwaZulu-Natal had been the ANC’s biggest province in terms of membership numbers since 2009 . It was also the province most affected by the emergence of the uMkhonto weSizwe(MK) party, as the ANC’s support dropped from 54.22% in 2019 to 16.99% in May.

The MK party, contesting its first elections, won 45.35% of the provincial vote.

A Paternoster Group study indicates that, in 2021, the ANC received 5.25 million votes, more than two million of them coming from KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. This translates to 37.7% of the ANC’s national vote. 

In 2019, the ANC received a little over 10 million votes, of which 4.44 million came from Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, the equivalent of 44.3% of the voter share — in stark contrast with this year’s election failure.

The party lost multiple municipalities to the Inkatha Freedom Party after the 2021 local government elections and has lost several wards to the MK party since the May elections,  as voters expressed their frustration over issues like service delivery failures, corruption and internal factionalism​.

Mtolo has been a controversial figure, accused by some in the party of alienating key constituencies and failing to unite the province ahead of crucial elections​.  

Last week he had to apologise to the ANC’s alliance partner, the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union, for accusing its members of contributing to service delivery failures. 

The fallout led to a R2 million defamation lawsuit against Mtolo and the ANC, which was withdrawn after his public apology.

Mtolo’s detractors, including the youth league, believe his leadership is incompatible with the party’s goals in KwaZulu-Natal, especially in the face of growing competition from the MK party.

“While we respect the democratic processes that elected Cde Mtolo to his current position, we believe that his continued presence as provincial secretary risks further division and could erode the gains we are trying to make in uniting the province and regaining our support base,” the letter reads.

“There is currently no unity within the PEC [provincial executive committee] and we all know Mtolo is the main problem. He stands between us and the ability to clinch victory in the ongoing by-elections and local government,” they said.

The letter to Mbalula is part of a broader effort that has been supported by many branches and alliance partners to bring about change in the province.

Many in the ANC believe that neither Mtolo nor chairperson Siboniso Duma have the ability to steer the party through this difficult period and that a new leadership is necessary to revitalise the party and reverse its electoral decline​.

But, during the party’s two-day national working committee (NWC) visit in Durban last month, Mbalula downplayed talks of disbanding the party’s structures in KwaZulu-Natal.

“I can’t comment on that at the present moment. From where I was deployed in eThekwini, something like that did not arise from the structures on the ground. The preoccupation here is how we lost and what needs to be done in the province. I cannot comment about disbandment as disbandment is not the preoccupation of our visit,” he said.

Mbalula said while some wished for the disbanding, the party had advised against it.

“You don’t build by disbanding. There are important things that need to be done to strengthen this province. First, with a proper understanding and a diagnosis of what actually happened in this province from the point of view of the elections. Why we lost so many people, why people did not come out and vote in their numbers [for the ANC].”

This week ANC chief whip Mdumiseni Ntuli told the M&G that a possible disbandment had not been decided upon yet.

“These discussions are still at an early stage. Anyone speculating about the dissolution of structures is moving ahead of the discussions. We are still in the process of reflecting on these issues, and the final outcomes will depend on our assessment and engagement with the ANC’s structures and broader society,” Ntuli said.

He could not be drawn to answer on Mtolo’s position, but said although the party had not yet discussed the disbandment of structures, they would focus on increasing the support base which had seen a decline caused by loss of credibility in leaders. 

Ntuli said the party would select “quality” leaders who will bring unity to represent them ahead of the 2026 local government elections.

He explained that the PEC was partly to blame for the decline in support because of its failure to address high levels of unemployment, poverty and inequality — especially unemployment. 

He added that the inability of municipalities, provincial government structures and national bodies to effectively address service delivery problems has been a significant factor contributing to the ANC’s declining support.

“The public is concerned with whether the chosen candidates have what it takes to enjoy their support. If we address these concerns and improve on critical issues like unemployment, the economy and service delivery, people may begin to focus on what the ANC is doing for them, rather than what the government of national unity is doing,” he said.

A member of the PEC said they expected disbandment to take place by the end of the month.

“The NWC visit concluded that the organisation is dead in KwaZulu-Natal and that we must start it afresh,” the PEC member said. “The NEC [national executive committee] must define what the means are to achieve that objective.”

Ntuli spoke to the Mail & Guardian on the sidelines of the ANC national working committee’s meeting on Monday with the party’s Gauteng leadership to reflect on its electoral performance in May.

The ANC lost its majority in the province in the 29 May elections, only managing to re-elect Panyaza Lesufi as premier by convening a minority government after negotiations with the DA collapsed.

The political realignment that has followed has seen ActionSA working with the ANC at city level, where they have since installed Dada Morero as mayor. The parties are planning a similar initiative in Tshwane, where a motion of no confidence to remove mayor Cilliers Brink is pending.

But the collapse of municipal services contributed to the ANC’s dismal showing in the May national and provincial elections and that the party is concerned that taking over Tshwane this close to another vote might cost it again.

“Something that we are going to be reflecting on as the ANC [is whether it is] worth it for the ANC to inherit a municipality that is already bankrupt, which has a very slim possibility of recovery between now and local government elections,” Ntuli said.

“Will that not be used against us that we have inherited a municipality and the municipality is on its knees and be used as a judgement for us when we campaign for 2026?” 

Last week, the M&G reported that ActionSA is set to get the mayoral position in Tshwane while the ANC will get the council speaker and members of the mayoral committee (MMC) as part of a deal between the parties to oust the DA.

This would mean that for the first time in eight years, the ANC will form part of the government in Tshwane after it was driven out after the 2016 local government elections.

The relationship with ActionSA and ANC in Gauteng has benefited both parties because they have already taken power in the City of Johannesburg, with the ANC getting mayorship and ActionSA the speaker position.

The ANC will bring the motion of no confidence to remove Brink on 26 September. This follows the withdrawal of an earlier attempt to pass an urgent motion, which he challenged in court.

This time around the motion is likely to be passed because the ANC, ActionSA and the Economic Freedom Fighters will have enough numbers to remove the mayor.

The ANC’s leadership nationally will have a say as to its position and attitude to the Tshwane situation before the motion against Brink goes ahead, Ntuli said.

He said the decision should not only be about securing control of mayorships and MMC positions, but also about to what extent this would help the organisation achieve its programmes.

“It is not a question of whether we are happy or not happy because we are not creating salaries for our comrades. We are creating a platform for the national democratic revolution to be implemented,” he said.

“It is a very difficult issue which we need to deal with as the leadership because it’s not just about getting a mayor there and a mayor there. What are you going to do with that mayor? Will it serve our people?”

Brink said ActionSA should also shoulder some blame for the service delivery problems it has cited among the reasons it wanted to oust him, arguing that Herman Mashaba’s party was involved in the policy decisions made by the current city government.

On Tuesday, the Mail & Guardian reported that ActionSA is set to get the mayoral position in Tshwane while the ANC will get the council speaker as part of a deal between the parties to take over the city.

Both parties are also prepared to offer the EFF some member of the mayoral committee (MMC) positions in return for the Red Berets’ support in ousting the DA. 

Brink said ActionSA was claiming credit for the city’s advances but blaming its failures solely on the DA.

“You will see on social media ActionSA deputy mayor [Nasiphi Moya] and MMCs doing visits in various communities across the city to show how streetlights are being repaired, how community facilities are being improved. It contradicts the story that ActionSA is telling that Tshwane is failing,” he told the M&G on Wednesday.

“Either Tshwane is making progress or it is failing. If it’s making progress and ActionSA is sharing the credit then they can’t attack and blame the failures on us. If Tshwane is not making progress, then ActionSA must take responsibility for that.”

Brink said ActionSA has oversight of townships such as Mabopane, Winterveld, Soshanguve and Hammanskraal. 

“Even in these circumstances they are attacking the performance of the coalition and, at the same time, they are taking credit for our successes. There is serious hypocritical conduct on the part of ActionSA.”

ANC Tshwane regional secretary George Matjila said this week that ActionSA would get the mayoral position, but it was still not clear who Mashaba’s party would field as its preferred candidate.

“The speaker will come from the ANC. The MMC positions will be ActionSA, ANC and EFF, but it will depend on what becomes the final arrangement with the smaller parties,” Matjila said.

The ANC has tabled a motion of no confidence against Brink, which will be supported by some of the DA’s current partners — ActionSA, the EFF, the African Christian Democratic Party and the Congress of the People. 

The motion was initially expected to be tabled on 30 August but was withdrawn by the ANC after Brink approached the Pretoria high court to challenge its legality, citing procedural irregularities.

Brink told the M&G: “It’s clear to me that they intend to bring the coalition down and effectively install a new government that will have the EFF as the kingmakers. This will be incredibly bad for the city of Tshwane.

“If you add the seats of ActionSA up to the ANC seats, it’s not enough for a working majority. To have a working majority either you have the DA or you need the EFF. I think they will be held accountable by their voters for bringing the EFF into government. I believe they will pay for that at the next election; the people will not forget it. If you think you can improve ActionSA’s performance in government by bringing the EFF in, you are mistaken.”

Brink said he believed the move would see ActionSA being “wiped out” for bringing the EFF into the centre of government. “It will also wipe out the progress which we have achieved for the past 17 months.”

He said it was “inaccurate” to blame the DA for Tshwane’s woes because the city had been run by a series of coalitions since the ANC lost power and that the coalition government had been dealing with the consequences of 16 years of ANC rule, cadre deployment and the conflation of party and state.

“The story that it had been a DA government, it hasn’t. It’s been a coalition government and even at the outset, there has been active disruption of council meetings and that has had a significant effect.

“Of course, we take responsibility for fixing what is wrong and whatever the source of that wrongdoing is, but to say the DA has been in government for so long is simply inaccurate.”  

Among the reasons cited by ActionSA for dumping the DA as a coalition partner was its failure to provide service delivery in townships around the City of Tshwane.

Mamelodi resident Moses Selepe said poor services and water problems in the township were a big concern, along with the failure to collect rubbish in areas where there were informal settlements.

“You find that the trucks do not go there and people end up dumping wherever they can. The place starts stinking which becomes a health hazard, especially for children,” Selepe said.

Crime was also a big worry in the township, he added, narrating how a group colloquially known as “Boko Haram” — after the Islamist jihadist group in Nigeria — has been terrorising residents in the area.

“This thing of extortions has been happening for a long time in Mamelodi. They will make you pay a protection fee if you have a shop. So the government has failed to deal with crime and I do not think there will be any change even if the DA is removed,” Selepe said.

He said he believed the DA and its coalition partners had prioritised delivering services to the affluent suburban areas of Tshwane rather than the townships, and this was evident in the deterioration of his area.

“Unemployment is high, crime has increased, rubbish is not being collected in some areas, and some people in Ikageng have not had water for four years but those who stay in the nearby squatter camp and are connected illegally to the water reservoir can access water,” Selepe said.

“The ones who actually pay for this water cannot get it and have to stand in long queues for water tankers to provide water.”

Brink acknowledged that service delivery in Tshwane “is far from perfect”, but insisted that the city had made considerable progress in making management changes and taking action against the misspending of public money. The city’s audit outcomes have improved and the financial recovery of the city has been acknowledged by rating agencies.

“It is not easy to govern Gauteng or the City of Tshwane, it requires difficult decisions, and it is not like flipping a switch. The fact of the matter is that the economy of Gauteng is growing slower than the population, we have got massive migration and that immigration is affecting the townships in particular,” he said.

“Land grabs are affecting the township more than it is the suburbs because folks in the township cannot afford private security and all of these other things that folks who have means have. That is why it is incredibly important that you have a stable government that improves the administration.”

A resident in Soshanguve Block BB, who is also a municipal worker, said the possibility of the DA being relegated to opposition benches was “exciting”, accusing the party of “just frustrating workers”.

The council employee, who asked not to be named, said that when the DA took over the municipality, workers had been protesting about not getting salary increases, but the party had fired them instead of listening to their concerns.

“What we are saying is don’t just choose a mayor, but choose somebody with knowledge of running the municipality and what are the things affecting residents and workers. You can’t just put on a face that doesn’t understand anything.”

The employee praised the last ANC mayor in Tshwane, Kgosientso Ramokgopa, who is now the national electricity and energy minister.

“If there’s one man who changed Tshwane, it was Sputla [Ramokgopa]. When he came in here there were a lot of things we were told were impossible but under him, they were possible. We want someone like that who is going to say to my people, ‘I’m going to make sure things run well.’

“Since these coalitions took over, we have never smiled to tell you the truth …. If you are frustrated [how] do you look forward to going to work? The working morale is down. [Out of] the municipalities of Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane, we are the ones that are paid less,” the council worker added.

Baloyi made the announcement at the Gauteng Young Women’s Christian Association hall in Dube, Soweto on Thursday, saying the entire executive of Xiluva would join Jacob Zuma’s MK party. He encouraged all those who voted for him in the 29 May general elections to follow suit.

“The issues of Xiluva will be deregistered and if anyone calls themselves Xiluva after deregistration, they will be misrepresenting themselves because such an organisation will not exist,” he said.

“There’s legal protection around the branding and copyright, so it will be very difficult to take the brand and do whatever they want.”

Baloyi joins a long list of leaders who left their own parties to join the MK party, including Colleen Makhubele and Floyd Shivambu.

He said he started Xiluva to attempt to do what the MK party did successfully.

“What our documents are saying and the documents of uMkhonto weSizwe are saying, it is the same thing. The people have expressed themselves. Why must we continue?” Baloyi said.

“We are coming here to say we are humbling ourselves as the leadership, we are closing our organisation. For us we have found a home. Umkhonto resonates with us and Umkhonto and Xiluva are the same thing.”

He said whether people took him seriously or not, he would not “burden himself” with what they said about him. Baloyi added that he would decline any offer by the MK party to deploy him in parliament or the provincial legislature as he wanted to work on the ground.

“There’s no expectation; if there was an offer to be made, it would be respectfully declined,” he said.

They say Mantashe and the provincial committee ignored warnings from the regional  leaders about imposing a candidate that did not have the support of voters.

By-election results on Wednesday showed that the MK party won its first ward outside of KwaZulu-Natal, securing 43% vote in Photsaneng, Rustenburg. The ward was previously held by the ANC, but fell vacant after the councillor died. The ANC got 33% of the vote this time around, down sharply from 44% in the 2021 local government elections.

The loss is embarrassing for the ANC and there are fears it might be replicated in other areas, said a source in the Bojanala region, who did not want to be named.

Some in the party’s provincial structure have blamed Rustenburg’s executive mayor, Sheila Mabale-Huma, for the loss of the ward, but others have defended her, saying the blame lies squarely at the feet of Mantashe and the PEC.

The ANC’s process of selecting a candidate for by-elections or provincial elections begins with a branch general meeting where party members nominate four candidates, followed by a community meeting where they respond to questions from residents, one source said. 

The next step is a community vote where one candidate is selected for submission to the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC).

The source said the branch leadership flagged concerns that the candidates for the voting district did not live in Kareng and were Xhosa speakers.

“What happened in ward 45, there are three voting districts, Photsaneng, Thekwane and Kareng. Kareng has Xhosas and when we looked at it in the community meeting, they imported people from elsewhere,” they said.

“They disputed their participation in the process andt wrote to the regional executive committee [which] made a submission to the PEC [which] dismissed the dispute without even entertaining it. The Xhosa guys even called comrade Gwede Mantashe and comrade Madoda Sambatha, saying ‘the Tswanas are driving tribalism and they don’t want us’.

“The interference from Gwede, Madoda Sambatha and the PEC has cost the ANC that ward because when the dispute was raised, they did not even want to entertain the merits of the dispute and said they are going with the candidate that is preferred. We said the candidate is not properly processed because they were voted by people from other wards.”

North West ANC secretary Louis Diremelo denied the allegations saying Mantashe was not involved in the selection of candidates. “The voters from areas outside ward 45 or people whose address … the IEC could not confirm were disqualified. The issue of voting based on tribal lines was discouraged.” 

He said the ANC election structures wanted an urgent postmortem on the results from four wards the party contested. 

Mantashe himself also denied the assertions, telling the M&G: “This is not a story. It’s a false story and it doesn’t exist.”

One source said the failure to prioritise service delivery had hurt the party in the province.

During a visit to the Ngaka Modiri Molema region in North West in May last year, President Cyril Ramaphosa warned ANC branches that the party would lose the 2024 elections if they continued with factionalism and infighting.

“If we go to 2024 with this disunity, which I see here, I can promise you we are not going to be successful. If you want to lose the election, then you must proceed with this disunity I am seeing here,” he said.

“For as long as you are divided, we will not be able to solve our problems. You are members of the same family, but you are pulling in different directions.”

This story, first published on 30 August, has been updated with comment from Gwede Mantashe.

Both parties are also prepared to offer the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) some members of the mayoral committee (MMC) positions in return for their support in ousting the Democratic Alliance (DA).

ANC Tshwane regional secretary George Matjila told the Mail & Guardian that ActionSA would get the mayoral position, but it was still not clear who Herman Mashaba’s party would field as its preferred candidate.

But other sources said the current deputy mayor, Nasiphi Moya, was ActionSA’s preferred candidate.

“The speaker will come from the ANC. The MMC position will be ActionSA, ANC and EFF but it will depend on what becomes the final arrangement with the smaller parties,” Matjila said.

Asked how the MMC positions would be shared, Matjila said “ I know, but I won’t give you [an answer] now.” 

The City of Tshwane is likely to have a new mayor and executive in about a week after the ANC tabled a motion of no confidence against the current DA mayor, Cilliers Brink. The motion will be supported by some of the DA’s current partners: ActionSA, the EFF, the African Christian Democratic Party and the Congress of the People. 

The motion was initially expected to be tabled on 30 August but was withdrawn by the ANC after Brink approached the Pretoria high court to challenge its legality, citing procedural irregularities.

Brink’s removal will signal the end of the relationship between the DA and ActionSA in the three Gauteng metros and an end to the multiparty government coalition. Part of the bickering in Tshwane stems from the DA’s failure to support a speaker candidate from ActionSA.

In a council sitting in March 2023 to elect ActionSA’s Kholofelo Morodi as speaker, DA councillors marked their ballot with 1, 2, 3 instead of ticking or crossing Morodi’s name, which resulted in the Electoral Commission of South Africa declaring them as spoiled votes.

This led to the African Transformation Movement (ATM) candidate Mncedi Ndzwanana, who was supported by the ANC, EFF and smaller parties, being elected as the speaker.

Brink has since labelled the divorce from ActionSA as deeply disappointing and “a betrayal of our coalition and of the residents of Tshwane”.

The ANC and ActionSA are already in a coalition in the City of Johannesburg, where they removed Kabelo Gwamanda as mayor and replaced him with the ANC’s Dada Morero. 

ActionSA has the speaker position in the metro and it was expected that the party would demand the same in Tshwane.

“The situation in Johannesburg and in Tshwane is far different. The ANC in Johannesburg has always been part of government so the issue was whether the ANC should be in the mayorship or not,” Matjila said.

“In Tshwane we have not been in government for eight years. The first leg is for us to be in government, so the ANC in Tshwane is not going to take mayorship but the reconfiguration is going to allow it to be part of the executive.”

The ANC believes that because it is the bigger party in government, it should be given the leadership role. 

Matjila said this was not the law but the view of the party, which was subject to others agreeing to that process.

“In Tshwane, because there’s a government now, our first step is to dismantle the government of the day. By dismantling the government of the day, we can not be ambitious. If we become too ambitious, it simply means those people may not agree.

“There’s a first step as it happened in Johannesburg. They never started by taking mayorship. They first became part of the government then later on, when the person who was at the helm was not equal to the task, there was a call for the ANC to take charge.”

ActionSA national chairperson Michael Beaumont told the M&G that the party was still internally reviewing its position in Tshwane and that review was not done with a premeditated outcome.

He said that although ActionSA was aware that there were proposals for it to take the mayoral team and participate in the removal of the current government in the city, the status quo remained until the party’s senate concluded the review and resolved otherwise.

He said the party’s deputy mayor had been doing “incredible” work in the city in the face of serious challenges, adding that other political parties viewing ActionSA as being able to lead the city was a “vote of confidence”.

“We see this as an opportunity. There is a great opportunity here to actually have a government that is led by a party that has a constituency on both sides of the proverbial railway tracks, so that service delivery is not the case that some have it and some don’t,” Beaumont said.

“The record of the current government in Tshwane has not been great in townships. We are going to be visiting a number of communities in the latter half of this week to directly inspect the state of service delivery on the ground.”

Asked whether the party would consider Moya as the new mayoral candidate, he said there had not been an official discussion about that, but added: “I do not think it would be a massive leap in logic that Dr Moya would be incredible for the role. She would be a very strong candidate and the party would be foolish not to consider her very seriously.” 

Beaumont said the response of the DA in accusing ActionSA of betrayal was “telling” and made it clear that the DA would not “play nice” with parties such as ActionSA, the Patriotic Alliance and the  Freedom Front Plus.

“The only parties the DA can work well with are parties seen not to be eating its lunch,” he said.

“We have an agreement which requires an ActionSA speaker to be elected but it didn’t happen because the DA spoiled their ballots and brought about the election of the ATM speaker. I must be clear that this is not about the positions. It aggravates the problem.

“What this is, it is about the real concern about service delivery in communities in Tshwane. We have been part of a coalition where people have died because of cholera, because of a city that is in denial about the water crisis that it has created in Hammanskraal.

“Mamelodi continues to have water on fewer days of the month that they don’t have water. We continue with the sewage crisis in Soshanguve, there is contaminated groundwater heading in the direction of Hammanskraal and the refuse collection in all these communities is an absolute disaster.”

An ActionSA source in Tshwane said the party was reviewing its state of engagement in Gauteng, which included Tshwane saying the party has every right to review its internal arrangement and position. 

The source said he could neither confirm nor refute the allegations that the mayor would come from ActionSA. 

“The discussions are still at provincial and national level, but we do not have that information now. The decision of who occupies which position in the organisation solely rests with our upper structures.”