First seven parties join the BOSA Alliance to mount a united challenge for in next month’s elections

24 April 2024

Note to editors: the following statement was made today by Build One South Africa (BOSA) Leader, Mmusi Maimane at a media event in Soweto. Maimane revealed seven partners that have joined the BOSA Alliance and will campaign for the party in the upcoming National and Provincial Elections.

When Build One South Africa (BOSA) was launched on Heritage Day in 2022, we committed to the people of South Africa that this new political platform will appear on the ballot paper in 2024 as an umbrella body for community organisations across the country.

We recognised that no one party can stand alone and represent the will of many vastly diverse communities across the country in Parliament. Rather, it will take smaller groupings of citizens who are community based - and community biased – to all coalesce under one umbrella body.

With BOSA as the national anchor party at the rational centre of South African politics, we aimed to gather several smaller parties under one banner to mount a united challenge to the current ruling class and bring change to our country.

This is necessitated by both principle and pragmatism. We champion the principle of ground-up, grassroots decision-making as the most appropriate form of decision-making. And pragmatically, because trust in politics and politicians is at an all-time low in South Africa, citizens are demanding names and faces who are from their communities and who are accountable to their communities.

After months of negotiations, we can today announce the first seven parties who will form part of the BOSA Alliance - a broad collective of political parties and civil society organisations committed to fostering significant political change in South Africa.

The parties to this agreement agree not to contest the 2024 National and Provincial Elections as individual entities, but as a collective under the banner of BOSA. Only BOSA will be on the ballot, and all parties will campaign for BOSA and its candidates. In turn, BOSA has accommodated leaders of the other parties as candidates or in leadership structures of the party.

The BOSA Alliance is not restricted to this year’s National and Provincial Elections. The Alliance was founded with the next Local Government Elections in 2026 in mind. Parties to the alliance – who choose to run in their regions in 2026 - will have the benefit of BOSA campaigning for their organisations in that election.

The first seven parties to the BOSA Alliance are:

Mopani Independent Movement (MIM)

A local political party based in Limpopo and formed ahead of the 2021 Local Government Elections, MIM has councillors elected in both the Ba-Phalaborwa and Greater Letaba Local Municipalities in Limpopo.

Lentswe La Batho

A national political party founded by Dr Thabo Diseko in Thabu Nchu in 2022 and that has presence in both the Free State and the Northern Cape.

Abantu Integrity Movement (AIM)

A local political movement founded by Mkhuseli “Khusta” Jack and operating in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality in the Eastern Cape. AIM has councillors elected in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro.

Moretele Independent Civic Organization (MICO)

A civic organisation operating in Mpumalanga and has councillors elected in Dr JS Moroka Municipality.

New Horizon Movement

An independent, nonpartisan community-based organization operating in Sedibeng District Municipality of Gauteng, with representation in the Emfuleni Local Municipality council

Movement of the People

A newly formed local political party operating in the Central Karoo Region of the Western Cape.

African Change Academy (ACA)

A national political party led by UDM founding member Wandile Tsipa and operating in the O.R Tambo District region of the Eastern Cape

Today, the inaugural seven parties to the BOSA Alliance sign the following pledge

To achieve the change necessary, we pledge to:

I) Restore meritocracy to the civil service; hire high quality teachers, law enforcement and technocrats from all sectors of society in order to rejuvenate, refresh and re-capacitate our government. 

II) Protect the constitution if legislation deemed by the leaders of the Progressive Alliance as dangerous, is tabled by other Members of Parliament. 

III) Seek to bring in more like-minded political parties such that the Progressive Alliance can become a greater force in parliament. 

IV) To share polling data, voter registration efforts, voting district monitoring and technical capacity building through the joint training of our public representatives.

V) Where possible we pledge to open doors to each other’s donors and in-kind support base, such that we

VI) may ethically grow a set of common political resources available for the fulfilment of our shared vision.

Thirty years into democracy and there is a generation that has never seen the system of governance work. We need to be willing to take the responsibility of making our country work into our own hands. We believe the BOSA Alliance is an important and crucial step in achieving this goal.

Issued by Roger Solomons, BOSA Acting Spokesperson, 24 April 2024