UPDATE: DA attempts to induce ActionSA Newcastle Councillor to break social contract

21 October 2022               

This update to our communication on 11 October 2022 is necessitated by subsequent developments. 

It is now clear that the DA met with ActionSA Newcastle Councillor Shandy Singh not once, but twice.

The first meeting took place on 25 August 2022 in what appears to be the Office of the Leader of the Official Opposition in Parliament, attended by DA Leader John Steenhuisen, DA KZN Provincial Leader Francois Rodgers and DA MP Imran Keeka.

The second meeting took place on 9 October 2022 in Newcastle, attended by DA KZN Provincial Chairperson Dean Macpherson, Deputy Chairperson of the Federal Council Ashor Sarupen and DA MP Imran Keeka. It was at this meeting that ActionSA is reliably informed that alleged inducements of positions were offered to Singh in exchange for his resignation as a Ward Councillor and membership of ActionSA.

The DA has now admitted that “four senior (DA) leaders met on different occasions with Mr Singh … to discuss a mutual potential collaboration between Mr Singh and the DA (related to) political options and opportunities”. This admission confirms, in our view, that the DA embarked on a questionable campaign to induce Councillor Singh to betray the trust placed in him by voters. 

It further appears that the inducement offered to Singh by the DA consisted of first position on a future DA PR list of the Newcastle Municipality and not, as stated in our communication of 11 October, membership of the Provincial Legislature in KwaZulu-Natal. 

ActionSA releases this update in the interests of absolute clarity in this matter of significant public interest.

A ward councillor is the only elected representative in South Africa that is elected directly by the residents of a given area. This makes the social contract that arises from the election of a ward councillor sacrosanct.

That DA leaders would allegedly seek to induce a Ward Councillor to break that social contract with offers of financial rewarding job security is shocking and, in our view, tantamount to attempted bribery. The fact that DA leaders are alleged to have done this only weeks after losing Johannesburg and citing issues of councillors being induced to vote against party mandates is nothing short of hypocritical. The DA’s willingness cause an avoidable by-election in a municipality narrowly won away from the ANC less than 11 months ago, placing a new coalition government at risk, only speaks to how residents have become collateral damage in the DA’s efforts to settle grudges with ActionSA.

ActionSA contended before, as we do today, that the actions by these DA Leaders require public accountability through political speech, instead of being protected by threats of defamation lawsuits.  

Issued by Michael Beaumont, ActionSA National Chairperson, 21 October 2022