Changing political climate prompted reverse on ANC stance, says ActionSA
ActionSA announced it was leaving the Democratic Alliance (DA)-led coalition government in Tshwane after holding talks with the ANC to take over the capital city.
ActionSA's Gauteng chairperson, Funzi Ngobeni. Picture: @ActionSA_GP/X
JOHANNESBURG - ActionSA said that a changing political climate had prompted it to reverse its long-held stance of never working with the African National Congress (ANC).
The party recently struck up a relationship with the ANC, working together in Johannesburg to pass key legislation and remove Kabelo Gwamanda as mayor.
ActionSA announced it was leaving the Democratic Alliance (DA)-led coalition government in Tshwane after holding talks with the ANC to take over the capital city.
ALSO READ:
• DA's backdoor negotiations with ANC reason ActionSA's cut ties in City of Tshwane
In June this year, ActionSA announced its exit from the Moonshot Pact, accusing the DA of breaking one of the charter's key clauses to never working with the ANC.
At the time, ActionSA's national chairperson, Michaeal Beaumont, said the party would not be exiting from the coalition government in Tshwane as it did not want to punish the residents of the capital city for the DA's actions.
"But at the same time, we make it clear if the DA is going to do a deal with the ANC and if that deal is going to extend across the tiers of government as we are reading in the media, then we invite the DA to replace us with the ANC as we will not in good conscience be involved in any coalition that involves the ANC."
However, three months later, ActionSA's Gauteng chairperson, Funzi Ngobeni, said that the situation and the party’s feelings towards the ANC had changed.
"You will be hard-pressed to find any other party that didn’t say they were going to work with the ANC up until the last moment, even the same Democratic Alliance, the IFP and others. We signed a multi-party charter that said we are not going to work with the ANC, all of us, but here we are. We have got all these parties forming a Government of National Unity – a grand coalition, that’s what we call it – and of course, they will say to you it's informed by the current political landscape and as ActionSA, we recognised as well the political landscape has changed and we had to review our stance to working with the ANC."
Ngobeni said that talks of a succession plan in Tshwane were still ongoing with the ANC and other parties.