ActionSA launches ground-breaking consultative process ahead of inaugural policy conference

20 April 2023

Note to editors: These are remarks made by ActionSA national leaders at the launch of ActionSA’s ground-breaking policy process in anticipation of our inaugural policy conference in September 2023 at a press conference in The Wanderers Club, Illovo, Johannesburg, on Thursday, 20 August 2023.

Good morning,

Next year South Africans will once again head to the polls as we mark 30 years of democratic government in South Africa.

But instead of being a moment of celebration, for many this will be a moment of reflection on the failure of democratic South Africa to live up to the promise of 1994 and a prosperous future for all.

I say this not to dwell on the numerous challenges we face as a nation. As South Africans we are all too familiar with the problems we face. Instead, I want to shift the narrative of doom, to provide South Africans with hope, in the form ActionSA’s plans to put forward a credible, solutions-based alternative to the political system that has failed us.

Today it is my honour to announce that in September, ActionSA will hold our inaugural Policy Conference to solidify our policy offering that will serve as our election platform next year.

The Policy Conference will be the culmination of an expert-led, public engagement process that will serve to refine our policy offering. This consultative process will solicit inputs from internal structures, but also from those South Africans that have the knowledge and skills that can enrich our offering.

We believe that drawing on the views of people with first-hand knowledge of dealing with the challenges we face will ensure that the solutions we put forward are not just based on academic research and international best-practice, but also on real-world experiences.

This, we believe, is central to putting forward a credible policy offering. As we have seen in recent months, it is easy to start a new political party in South Africa. But, the success rate for new parties is less than 1%. One of the biggest reasons for this is that despite a proliferation of new parties, very few have succeeded in providing a credible and compelling alternative that inspires hope.

This is clearly seen in the declining voter turnout we have witnessed over the past three decades. In the 2019 General Election, of the roughly 36 million eligible voters in South Africa, a mere 17.6 million cast a vote. Put differently, more eligible voters did not vote than those who did.

At the heart of the problem is that many of these new parties succumb to internal leadership battles, while failing to focus on the work of putting forward a credible alternative to that will take South Africa forward.

After spending the past three years engaging countless South Africans about the future of our country, I can say without fear of contradiction that South Africans are not interested in lofty ideals, grandiose speeches or endless analyses of the problems we face. They want to know, in simple terms, how ActionSA plans to fix South Africa. What they are looking for is a party that can credibly put forward concrete plans to place our country on a path to a prosperous future.

When we launched ActionSA in August 2020, this is exactly what we set out to do. We were not guided solely by a desire to unseat the ANC, but to provide an alternative to failed the political establishment in South Africa.

Putting forward a credible policy offering, or plan of action, that ordinary South Africans can believe in is vital to inspire the unheard majority to go to the polls and vote for change. This plan must make South Africans believe that change is possibly, and that their vote can help to create a better future.

The desire to inspire hope for change in South Africans is what guided the launch of ActionSA’s South African Dream in February this year. The South African Dream is our vision for an inclusive and prosperous future for South Africa.

This is a vision for what we believe a future South Africa freed from the ANC and led by an ethical and caring government can look like.

It is important to dream; to have something to aspire to. But, as a party of action, we need to ensure that our dream for South Africa is supported by tangible plans to realise that vision. This is the objective of our policy process, and the Policy Conference in September.

While the formal part of the public consultation process will commence in May, this is the continuation of a process that started with the wide-scale public engagements we held during the People’s Dialogue.

It was the People’s Dialogue that ultimately informed our decision to launch ActionSA, and the seven core values or guiding principles on which it is grounded. These seven principles – endorsed by 2.4 million South Africans – will continue to guide our organisation.

Non-racialism: the South African reality is that there is a strong correlation between race and socio-economic opportunity. For us, non-racialism does not mean being colour blind. It means accepting that we have to actively work to build a society where race does not impact an individual’s opportunity for upward mobility, and where people are judged solely on their character.

Economic Prosperity: ActionSA sees the role of government as creating the conditions for the private sector - and especially SMMEs - to thrive and create jobs. This is the only way to build a more equal and prosperous society.

Respect for the Rule of Law: No country has ever economically prospered in an environment of chaos. The prevailing lawlessness in our country must be faced head on. We must empower independent law enforcement agencies to fight corruption, protect us from criminals, and prosecute without fear or favour.

Social Justice: ActionSA is unapologetic about promoting the interests of the marginalised. Our social justice efforts will focus on the promotion of equality of opportunity - not equality of outcome.

Quality Education: Education is key in building a prosperous nation. We cannot and will not tolerate the dysfunctional nature of our public schools, which are failing out youth. We will ensure that every person has the skills to succeed.

Ethical Leadership & Professional Public Service: we will be unapologetic about our pursuit for excellence in leadership and merit-based appointments in the public service. South Africans deserve to be led by ethical, competent and caring leaders, and public servants that put the interests of South Africa first.

Electoral Reform & Political Accountability: we will drive an agenda that supports reforms to ensure that South Africa’s public representatives and political leaders are accountable to those toward which they have a responsibility.

These principles remain the guiding light of ActionSA, and the foundation on which our policy offering has been constructed. The consultative process that will take place over the coming months will be refine and enrich the policies that ultimately serve at our Policy Conference.

We have adopted this approach because we do not believe that the solutions to South Africa’s greatest challenges can or will come from politicians alone. As we have always maintained there is nothing bad about South Africa that cannot be fixed by what is good about South Africa – the good, hard-working, law-abiding, family-oriented and freedom-loving people of our beloved country.

ActionSA was borne out of the engagements we had with South Africans during the People’s Dialogue, and we have not stopped listening to what our people have to say. That’s why our policy process will follow a multi-modal approach of best practice research, expert engagements and internal and public consultations. We believe this is important not only to ensure that we capture a diversity of voices and views in the finalisation of our policy platform – something we believe will enrich our offering – but so that South Africans can take collective ownership over the project of fixing South Africa.

On that note, allow me to hand over to our Chief Strategist, André Coetzee, to flesh out the process in detail.

Thank you.

Remarks by Mr André Coetzee, Chief Strategist

Thank you, Herman, and good morning to those present.

As Mr Mashaba mentioned, ActionSA’s policy development process started with the launch of the People’s Dialogue, which ultimately solicited substantive submissions from patriotic South Africans equivalent to 10,000 pages of text.

Guided by these submissions and our 7 guiding principles, when we launched ActionSA we adopted a set of Solutions Blueprints form the basis of our policy offering. They cover our core beliefs on a range of issues including the economy, education, social justice, immigration and climate, amongst others. These Blueprints were drafted by an expert team, in consultation with ActionSA members and external experts, and have guided the party since our launch. But, they do not amount to a comprehensive policy suite and were never intended to.

The next phase of our policy process is aimed at completing this process, and will culminate with our inaugural Policy Conference from 12 to 14 September. According to the ActionSA Constitution this is the highest policy decision-making body of the party and responsible for adopting the policy platform for the upcoming election. The proceedings will be broadcast live to the nation.

The Policy Conference will bring together over 600 delegates representing our structures in all 9 provinces. As an emerging party, we have spent the past couple of years building these structures and launching branches across South Africa. This is an important point because a Policy Conference must represent the diversity of our party.

From a thematic perspective, we have identified 11 Policy Areas that will be the focus of the upcoming conference:

Economic Prosperity

Energy Security

Economic Justice

Corruption

Law and Order

Education

Healthcare

Public Service

Foreign Policy

Climate & Environment

Rural Development & Traditional Affairs

These broad thematic areas will be unpacked in granular detail through the consultative process over the coming months before being presented at the Policy Conference.

ActionSA’s approach to policy is anchored in our vision for what South Africa can be, which was recently captured in our South African Dream. But as we work towards this dream, we realise that only pragmatic, tangible, long-term oriented and financially feasible interventions can put South Africa on a path to prosperity.

At every phase of our policy development process, we have thus emphasised evidence-led development based in solid research practice, while acknowledging that public policy does not exist in an academic vacuum. It must respond to the reality on the ground, and the lived experience of South Africans.

This is why we have always prioritised engagement and consultation with South Africans from all walks of life. We realise the importance of a bottom-up policy development approach, and hearing what people have to say has been a critical part in our policy development process.

Equally, ActionSA deeply values internal debate and engagement. Our diversity of views is our strength. As such, we are taking our policy ideas to our members and our branches, to offer all Actionairs the opportunity to contribute their thoughts and ideas to our policy process.

This will happen in parallel to an expert-led, public engagement process. We will be inviting even more South African subject-matter experts to participate in expert roundtables and workshops. The purpose of these roundtables is to discuss and debate various policy themes and issues, and to give non-political experts the opportunity to contribute to the important work of finding solutions to South Africa’s biggest challenges.

By experts we do not refer solely to academic experts – rather those with first-hand knowledge of specific areas. By way of example, who better understands the challenges of basic education than the teachers who spend their days teaching learners? The same can be said for doctors and nurses, policemen and woman, engineers etc. Engaging civil society is also central to our approach.

These inputs from the roundtables, along with the inputs solicited from our Actionairs and the public, will then feed into 11 inter-Provincial Policy Panels aligned to the 11 Policy Areas. These Panels are task with considering the variety of inputs and making recommendations to our Director of Policy. Our Limpopo Provincial Chairperson, Mr Sello Lediga, will be expanding on this point.

Finally, our Director of Policy, Mr Johann Krige, will be responsible for finalising the policy documents that will serve at the Conference. Mr Krige is a non-political appointment that has been consulted by ActionSA since the days of the People’s Dialogue. He has a Masters degree in Law, a Masters degree in Business Administration, and experience working in national parliament, local government, the World Bank and various international NGOs. Under his guidance, we have engaged with a broad range of technical experts, and will continue to do so.

Before I hand over to Mr Lediga, we would like to thank the thousands of South Africans that have already contributed to ActionSA’s policy development process. Without the generous contributions of the time and expertise of every-day South Africans, members of the business community, civil society, academics, industry experts and ActionSA representatives and members, our small policy unit would not have been able to fulfil the momentous task of developing a comprehensive policy suite for next year’s election.

On that note, allow me to hand over to ntate Lediga.

Remarks by Mr Sello Lediga, Limpopo Provincial Chairperson

Thank you, André.

As we have explained, the consultative process that we will be conducting over the coming months will include expert engagements, broad public consultation, and of course internal engagements.

The importance of internal engagement with ActionSA structures cannot be overstated. As a party that has demonstrated phenomenal growth over the past couple of years, the implication is that many of our members were not part of the People’s Dialogue engagements, nor the expert-led consultative process that resulted in the current set of Solutions Blueprints that was approved shortly after ActionSA launch in 2020.

To illustrate this point, we have established 162 branches in Limpopo over the past 9 months alone. It is our responsibility to ensure that we now give them in a voice in shaping the future of ActionSA. By way of example, in the recent by-election in Ward 10 in Limpopo (Seshego) ActionSA achieved almost 10% in a ward where we had no branches before the by-election. Similarly, 11% in KwaNongoma in KwaZulu-Natal earlier this month, and 8% in KwaNobuhle, Eastern Cape. ActionSA has succeeded in attracting support in urban and rural communities, and across all demographics. It is important that our policy process reflects our diversity.

Similarly, as a party that has attracted voters from across the political spectrum, ActionSA is inherently a melting pot of different ideas from divergent policy backgrounds. While our founding values and guiding principles will not change, it is important that we respect the diversity of views within our party, and afford our members the opportunity to play a formative role throughout the policy process in shaping our offering for 2024.

To achieve this, starting in May we will be hosting engagements across all 9 provinces to consult our members around the 11 Policy Areas. This will include branch level engagements, regional engagements and provincial-level engagements. In addition to this we will also be allowing individual members to make submissions directly into the process. In short, we want to make it as easy as possible for ActionSA members to get involved in shaping our policy offering.

These submissions will be centrally captured and passed on to the inter-Provincial Policy Panels to debate the submissions, consider them against the values of ActionSA and our constitutional and legislative framework, and make recommendations on how submissions should be treated.

These inter-Provincial Policy Panels will consist of 3 representatives from each province per policy bucket, and will be chaired by a member of the Senate – this makes for 11 panels with 28 members per panel.

The purpose of these Panels will be to provide consolidated feedback on the draft policies to allow them to be incorporated into the documents that will ultimately serve at the Policy Conference. This will ensure that our members can take collective ownership over process from start to finish.

I would now like to hand over to Dr Nasiphi Moya, Chief Governance Director, to address how the policy process fit into our broader preparations to position ActionSA as a part of national government in 2024.

Remarks by Dr Nasiphi Moya, Chief Director of Governance

Thank you, ntate Lediga.

Good morning ladies and gentlemen.

This process is designed to be organic within our party. When we are done, every member of ActionSA will be able to articulate our offer, comfortably in their mother tongues.

In addition to the involvement of internal structures in this process to enrich the policy offering, we are also intentional about preparing potential MPs and MPLs for government.

As Mr Mashaba indicates, ActionSA aims to provide South Africans with hope through plans to put forward a credible, solutions-based alternative to the political system that has failed us.

I want to emphasise that it is only through a credible leadership that all this will be possible. If we want to achieve our South African Dream, we need credible leadership to drive the policies we adopt.

While Mr Mashaba did not dwell on all the challenges and he is right we do not only know these challenges, but they are also our daily lived experience.

Thus, one of the challenges that as ActionSA we cannot shy away from is the leadership crisis plaguing our country.

We are intentional about offering credible leaders who will hit the ground running the moment they get elected. We do this because we are committed to being the party of government.

I am just going to share with you some of the plans we have to assure South Africans that ActionSA will only put the best forward to represent their needs and interests.

Involvement of our current Public Representatives in the Policy Consultation Process.

It is critical that our policy offer is not only consulted internally but also shared with our potential voters.

We currently have 91 public representatives across 6 municipalities in KZN and GP. These leaders have become a breath of fresh air in their municipalities. They continue to demonstrate what it means to be a party of Action. Residents turn to them for solutions.

As individuals who are already the ambassadors of ActionSA in their municipalities, they will be tasked with the responsibility to take our offering to their constituents.

One of the learnings in these municipalities is that government systems have completely alienated citizens. Our intention is to invoke the spirit of patriotism where ordinary South Africans are able to influence the agenda that affects their lives.

Our councillors will play a central role in this.

The Political Academy

Our party has launched a Political Academy that is aimed for all our members as well as Leadership Development in preparing leaders for office – both political and public service.

ActionSA cannot be part of the problem by flooding the system with individuals who are not ready to take this country forward. This would be contradictory to our guiding principle of Ethical Leadership and Professional Public Service.

We have resolved to grow our own timber of leaders. We consider this to be one of the massive contributions in fixing South Africa.

Ready to Govern Campaign

As we lead to the 2024 elections, we will share with South Africans our plans to showcase our readiness to govern. Potential Public Representatives will be part of our plans.

The Senate has approved an approach to select and nominate candidates. One of the indicators for a potential ActionSA MP or MPL will be the understanding of the policy offering. Beyond that, individuals who will be elected will need the ability to devise plans of implementation before they reach offices.

There is an acknowledgement within the party that you don’t elect individuals and then hope just hope that things will work out. We are deliberate in our leadership selection process.

ActionSA will produce diverse teams made up of capable individuals to represent interests of South Africans in various provinces and national.

In conclusion, the process we are outlining here today is designed for all members and South Africans who share our vision. As part of the process, we are preparing leaders who will take our vision and implement it for the benefit of all South Africans.

Thank you.

Issued by Lerato Ngobeni, ActionSA National Spokesperson, 20 April 2023