POLITRICKING | Good luck to Mmusi Maimane and his 2 million jobs promise - Herman Mashaba

“When you go and vote, the IEC doesn’t count how many times you filled a stadium,” says ActionSA President Herman Mashaba, who shrugs off the concept of “stadiumology” - the psychological battle of filling up stadiums, which has been successfully used by some of the more established parties as a show of force in their preparations for the battle on the ballot to govern South Africa.

The country holds its seventh democratic elections on 29 May.

This will be the first venture into national and provincial elections for Mashaba’s “actioners,” who made an impressive debut in the 2021 local government polls. This saw the party co-governing across several municipalities through a coalition with the DA - an agreement that still stands in Tshwane; while the ANC, EFF and other smaller parties have managed to push them out of power in Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni. 

Mashaba will, however, have to face off with many parties including his former federal leader Mmusi Maimane. Both Mashaba and Maimane quit the DA in 2019 and while it seemed they were set to work together, things didn’t play out that way.

“Mmusi has just promised two million jobs, good luck to him, that’s all I can say. I think good luck to Mmusi Maimane, he’s promised South Africa to producing two million jobs over the next five years, my goodness, he must be an extraordinary politician or government to do this.”

Mashaba is the first guest on the fourth season of Politricking with Tshidi Madia, a politics podcast by Eyewitness News. During this brief conversation, the leader of the green party shares his thoughts on the campaign trail, his vision for his party, life after the elections and navigating the Moonshot Pact. 

“I will honestly be personally disappointed if ActionSA emerges as the third biggest party. I won’t say we would have failed but it’s something I don’t think I would be happy about,” he says.

While Mashaba’s made an impressive showing and some in the governing ANC are concerned about the impact his party could have on its support in areas like Soweto, his approach to issues like migration and the Middle East conflict has drawn some criticism. 

He’s defended both, insisting that he’d like to see peace between Israel and Palestine but that the matter doesn’t supersede South Africa’s interests. 

“Right now, I said my focus is 100% focused on South Africa, our house is burning and anyone who is going to think he’s going to distract me, to really focus on issues when the lives of my family is at risk, I am not going to take that chance. Let the people deal with that, however, from a human point of view, I pray every single day that the Jewish and Palestinians, one day a leadership will emerge and that they learn to co-exist,” explains Mashaba. 

The ActionSA leader is also unable to say for sure if he will remain in Parliament. 

“If we don’t really get the required numbers to form government, 2026 is around the corner,” he says. 

Mashaba says his party, which contested six municipalities in the previous local government elections, wants to contest all the wards in the next local government polls, with him leading those campaigns instead of being based in Parliament’s opposition benches.