In this interview with The Joburg Post, ActionSA's President Herman Mashaba reflects on the political party's success in the 2021 Local Government Elections, Action SA's policies and manifesto, the Multi-Party Charter and Dr. Nasiphi Moya's appointment as the City of Tshwane's deputy mayor.

Well the appointment of Dr. Moya as the first ever deputy mayor of the City of Tshwane demonstrates a historical moment in South Africa and the political landscape at large, as you know South Africa has entered an era of coalition and I am mentioning this because the DA initially delayed the processes of the elections for the deputy mayor position but we never gave up.

Eventually we managed to come into agreement and we facilitated the removal of the first executive mayor of the City of Tshwane, Randall Williams, because he was running the city as if the DA got 2/3 of the majority votes.

Now the reason why it is important for us to have Dr. Moya as the deputy mayor is simply to co-govern because we cannot allow the DA to govern alone.

Another important reason why we want to co-govern is because we want to hold the city accountable for delivery of services to our people in all communities.

Before we talk about what has attributed to the success of the Local Government Elections in 2021, allow me to just give a bit of a background of how many councillors we have in the respective metros.

Well I remember very well how political analysts wrote us off leading into those elections because we had just formed the political party in 2020, so people thought we were the biggest joke with statements like "If ever ActionSA gets any seats it will just be three councillors in the City of Johannesburg."

We contested only six municipalities out of 278 and we then emerged as the 6th biggest political party in South Africa, so we are officially the 6th biggest party in the country and this is significant because we are not as yet represented in national government.

We have 44 councillors in the City of Johannesburg and majority of the people are not aware of this statistic, so this means ActionSA is the third largest political party in the City of Johannesburg.

Before these past Local Government Elections, the ANC had 124 councillors when I was still the mayor of the city in 2016, now they have only 90 and the DA had 104 councillors but now they have 71 so we have really made our mark in the City of Johannesburg.

We are the first political party in South Africa to reach an immense number of support from the people of South Africa, we receive support across all the nine provinces in the country.

The analysts and experts also wrote us off in the City of Tshwane but we now have 19 councillors there and we have 15 councillors in Ekhuruleni.

So coming back to what has attributed to this success, is that people must know that these things didn't just happen by chance or overnight, we work hard and we value the residents of this country so much that we have made it our mandate to deliver services to them.

Definitely, we are ready for this year's national elections, we are going to be contesting all nine provinces and I have already announced the Premier candidates for four provinces (North West, Limpopo, KZN and Northern Cape) and by the end of February I will be announcing the Premier candidates for the remaining five provinces.

If anyone thought we surprised South Africa in 2021, wait until 2024 national elections.

Well we are a political party that believes in the rule of law because the rule of law is very important.

It really disappoints and hurts me to live in a country where 80% of the people are murdered every day, we live in a country where rapists are brought back into our communities.

So what we are saying as ActionSA is that the rule of law has to apply, we need the safety of our law abiding citizens and not worry ourselves about criminals.

Criminals, murderers, rapists and drug traffickers in this country, under ActionSA will be given life imprisonment and no parole will be granted for them and we are unapologetic about it.

We want to bring back specialised units like what we had with the scorpions to deal with fraud and corruption, murders and robberies.

Just a bit of a background, when I was still growing up in the old South Africa we had the Brixton murder and robbery squad so we really need to re-establish those units.

We need the NPA to be led by independent leaders from political interference where cases of persecution don't really have to consult politicians so that the NPA can persecute without any fear or favour.

In terms of the economy we need a functioning economy and not an economy that is being held ransom by Trade Unions, so under ActionSA we will never have Trade Unions having a VETO right on the economy policies, yes we can engage with them but they will never have a VETO right on the policies of the economy.

We want the SMME's to start businesses and we get to protect them too.

As far as I am concerned Education has been one of the biggest crimes the ANC government has created by denying the black youth quality education by allowing the Unions to be the ones responsible for the appointment of schools principals and etc.

So we want one department of education and schools principals are going to be appointed by us government working with the communities so that no Union gets to tell us who to appointment as a principal.

We want competent people to be principals of our schools yet holding them accountable by bringing back school inspectors to hold the educators accountable.

We want to bring back the educators that have experience that have been sent into retirement by the ANC government, we want to bring them back to be principals.

We also want to invest in our public schools so that the schools in our communities are on the same level of quality with the schools in the suburbs.

Ethical leadership is also important as we head into the national elections, I am not in this job to make friends with anyone yet I value friendship and it is important to me but it is not going to be at the expense of my country.

More on these policies and what we seek to achieve is available on our website too.

The Multi-Party charter arrangement is necessary if one respects democracy because the coalition government is not something that any political party in the world would want because every political party wants an outright majority but ultimately the voters decide on that.

So for us as ActionSA we are in this arrangement because we appreciate and understand that South Africa has entered an era of coalition, and for us to accept being in a multi-party charter is to look at the "better devils" because it doesn't mean that we agree 100% with all the political parties in the multi-party charter.

So we have looked at political parties that are closer to our policies than others hence we are in that arrangement however, we are also very clear on the fact that we want outright majority in the 2024 national elections.

Another key factor is that if people want us to govern then they have to vote for us because unfortunately you cannot want us to govern and implement our policies if you can't vote for us because it doesn't work like that in a democratic dispensation.

Well in life it's always a question of is it possible or not, so question is, is it possible to fix South Africa? I strongly believe it possible to fix this country and I strongly believe if we can get outright majority we are indeed ready to lead.

The DA decided to have secret meetings with the ANC to remove me as the mayor of the City of Johannesburg, they were planning on having a motion of no confidence against me.

So I then knew about it before the motion came and fortunately enough for me being the mayor was the last job in the world that I wanted to do and on the 21st of October after Helen Zille was appointed as the chair of the DA I resigned.

I resigned because Helen was leading the negotiations with the ANC for my removal as the mayor because my only sin with the DA was that I was unrelenting with providing services to all the communities in the city so I was labeled an EFF mayor.

The DA didn't understand why must I provide services to people that are not voters of DA who don't pay taxes which I took as a deep insult, so that then created tensions between the DA and I. 

Young people need to know that every day a person needs to wake up and either go to work or go to school, we need to eradicate the culture of doing nothing and waiting for a social grant because a living is earned not handed to you.

I learned early on how to take responsibility for my life and not expect anyone to drive it or blame anyone for my circumstances, it is this that led to my involvement in the Free Market Foundation as I am totally against the socialist movement as it gives people a misguided notion that leads to entitlement.

The role of the government is not to give hand-outs but to create an environment that supports 50 million players, not just you as an individual, so you have to fight in order to survive in that crowd.

People should be able to surround themselves with the best personnel they can find.

I am not averse to buying people who possess a skills set that I need in my business, when I started Black Like Me I didn’t do it alone, I put a team together that had the skills I needed for production, sales and the financial side, and that’s what made us successful.

So healthy relationships and having the right people around you is key particularly for one's growth and success.

Music keeps me going, so my greatest escape from everything is my music room where I spend hours listening to my favourite hits, or to compose some esoteric tune on the piano.

I believe there is something very deep about music hence I am a blues and Jazz fanatic, and I revere musicians like Abdullah Ibrahim, Eddie Harris, Miles David, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Al Jarreau and others.

As Mashaba has outlined ActionSA's plan of action leading to the 2024 General Elections, it will be interesting to see how the political party performs in its very first participation in the national elections.