ActionSA Finalises Lists that Will Fight for South Africans as Unofficial Opposition

10 June 2024 

ActionSA has finalised its national and provincial lists in the final approach to impending inaugural meetings of the National Assembly and provincial legislatures next week.

Considering proposals for a grand coalition co-opting much of the opposition space in Parliament and in the legislatures, ActionSA has resolved to send the strongest possible delegation that must punch above its weight division in the National Assembly. ActionSA will send the following leaders to fight for South Africa:

Athol Trollip: has a long track record in public service, having previously served as an executive member of the Amathole District Municipality, as the Executive Mayor of Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality, and as Parliamentary Leader of the Official Opposition in the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature and the National Assembly. He has extensive experience in agriculture, working abroad as a learner farmer in various countries as well as serving as the chairman of the Bedford farmers association, as an executive of the former Eastern Province agricultural union and in the Agricultural and Land Reform Portfolio Committees in the Provincial Legislature and Parliament for 15 years.

Dr Kgosi Letlape: founded the Africa Medical Association and has served as the President of the Health Professionals Council of South Africa, Chairman of the South African Medical Association, President of the World Medical Association, and Executive Director of the Tshepang Trust. He made history by becoming the first black ophthalmologist in South Africa.

Dereleen James: is anti-substance abuse activist distinguished by her advocacy for the empowerment of communities seeing her appointed by the Minister of Sports, Arts, & Culture as a board member of the South African Institute for Drug-Free Sport. She has also been appointed by the Minister of Social Development as a board member of the Central Drug Authority and is a member of the SAPS National Anti-Drug and Gangsterism Priority Forum.

Lerato Ngobeni: is an experienced program manager and sustainability specialist who has worked in both corporate South Africa and civil society organisations, including Murray & Roberts Limited; African Access Holdings; the Royal Bafokeng Nation, Nelson Mandela and Hanns Seidel Foundations; Harvard University Center for African Studies, Africa Office; Safer South Africa Foundation, the Mike (Masingita) Nkuna Charitable Trust and ReimagineSA. She holds a BA (Hons) in Political Science & Government Summa Cum Laude from Johnson C Smith University, North Carolina, USA, and is an alumnus of the Thabo Mbeki Leadership Institute and serves as the ActionSA National Spokesperson.

Malebo Kobe: is ActionSA’s youngest Parliamentarian at just 32 years old, having studied at University in Pretoria and obtaining her Master’s in International Relations from the University Jilin in China. Malebo worked in International Relations Directorate of the Office of the Premier, Stakeholder Management at ESKOM and Randwater and was the Executive Support to the Head of Mission of the League of Arab States. Malebo founded the Kobe Malebo Foundations, an NGO supporting child-headed households, having grown up in one herself.

Alan Beesley: is a qualified Chartered Accountant and holds a Master’s in Development Studies from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He is an accomplished businessman who, before the 2021 local government elections, took on the fight to save South Africa. Beesley joined ActionSA to undo the decay in his home city of Durban where has served as an ActionSA Councillor in the eThekwini Municipality.

The calibre of ActionSA leaders going to the National Assembly will clearly have the ActionSA caucus punching far above its weight. ActionSA’s Senate, reflecting upon the dynamics arising from the 2024 elections, concluded that ActionSA must work to fill the void left by an opposition that will likely be co-opted into governing with the ANC.

The past 20 years, in particular, have demonstrated the inclinations of the ANC towards corruption and malfeasance even when the voice of the opposition was well represented. An opposition that has been neutered with positions and perks of office will be too compromised to hold its own government to account, making the work of ActionSA, and others, vital in the opposition in environment.

In the Gauteng Provincial Legislature, ActionSA Provincial Chairperson, Funzi Ngobeni, will be joined by former Member of the National Assembly, Emma More, and former Leader of the Official Opposition in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature, John Moodey.

In the North West Provincial Legislature, ActionSA will be represented by General Kwena Mangope and in Mpumalanga by Thoko Mashiane.

ActionSA will use these new platforms to continue the fight that we have begun to Fix South Africa. While not achieving the result sought, ActionSA has nonetheless emerged as the biggest new party outside of MK and amassing over 630 000 votes. This was achieved without a voice in the vital legislative platforms of South Africa, something which ActionSA now has and will use to fight for the South African people.

Statement issued by Michael Beaumont, ActionSA National Chairperson, 10 June 2024