ActionSA will not be silenced by cadres within JMPD

31 August 2021

Note to editors: Please see the statement below with the corrected links. An audio clip by Lerato Ngobeni, ActionSA National Spokesperson, can be found here. Please download the file to access the clip.

Today, we have written to the City of Johannesburg demanding the return and re-installation of ActionSA Voter Registration posters which were unlawfully confiscated by the Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD).

We are advised that the instruction to take down ActionSA posters was provided by JMPD director, Mathokoza Kgaswane, allegedly because “the election has not been proclaimed.” This is a clear falsehood and a blatant abuse of power for political ends.

Indeed, the City of Johannesburg officially acknowledged the commencement of the election period and its waiver of requirements for the purpose of political campaigning in a letter to the IEC, which can be found here. The IEC’s original correspondence to the City regarding the campaign period and related activities can be found here. Images of the JMPD’s unlawful action can be seen here.

We have demanded that the posters be returned and re-installed within the next 24 hours, otherwise we will have no option but to seek an urgent spoliation order from the courts against the JMPD.

What is at stake here are not pieces of promotional material but the right to the freedom of speech and political activity entrenched in our Constitution – we will not be undermined and censored by those of who have been captured by the ANC.

We will not be deterred in our attempts to give a voice to good, hard-working, law-abiding, family-oriented, and freedom-loving people of South Africa who are gatvol with inaction and a political system that does not serve them.

Let me be clear: ActionSA will not be silenced. We will not cower in the face of political reprisal. The stakes for South Africans are simply too high.

South Africans are gatvol with corruption, load-shedding, service delivery failures, rising unemployment, crime, cadre deployment, and gross incompetence of the state.

We remain resolute that the silent majority in our country must reclaim their political power from those who seek to hold us back from building an inclusive and prosperous future.

The only way to fix South Africa is for the 18.3 million South Africans who did not vote, to stand together to elect an ethical and competent government that will serve the people of our country over the party they represent.

Since 1994, it has never been more important for every South African citizen to make their voices heard. We are all desperate for change that will better our lives, the lives of our loved ones, and our society as a whole.

We must all Act as One, go out in our numbers to vote in the coming elections.

While change will not happen overnight, it can start immediately if every South African were to take action to end the tyranny of the current political status quo. 

Issued by Herman Mashaba, President, ActionSA, 31 August 2021