ActionSA initiates process to identify councillors who may have broken ranks
2 March 2023
ActionSA has initiated a process to identify any councillors within our ranks in Tshwane who may have departed from the decisions of the ActionSA caucus to support Cilliers Brink’s candidature for Mayor at the Council meeting held on 28 February 2023.
We have done to ensure that ActionSA is at all times guided by our core value of Ethical Leadership and holding our members to account when they do not abide by the principles of the party.
It is believed that 8 councillors from within the multi-party coalition supported the candidate of COPE’s Marunwa Makwarela ultimately causing his election to the position of Mayor. It is unknown from which parties these 8 councillors arise.
After a coalition meeting was held last night, ActionSA leadership met with its Tshwane Caucus. The meeting was positive and all Councillors expressed a desire for measures to identify who may have voted against the caucus decision.
ActionSA holds that the secret ballot provision of the Municipal Structures Act exists to protect votes of conscience but observes that this cannot be an unchecked power. The coalition observed the potential for the right of a secret ballot to be perverted to protect the receipt of bribes and inducements to support a candidate. This is contrary to the principle of Ethical Leadership.
ActionSA asserts that political parties have a dual duty to protect a legitimate vote of conscience as well to protect the residents of Tshwane from votes being cast in exchange for financial or other kinds of inducements. It is also worth noting that despite ActionSA having a provision in its constitution which requires any councillor wishing to cast a vote of conscience to follow a prescribed procedure, no councillor followed this procedure.
It is deeply concerning that allegations have already begun to surface that the actions of these 8 councillors were informed by inducements including both money and positions of higher remuneration. In our books, if such an allegation is found to be true, the crime of bribery will have been committed.
To balance the concerns of a protected vote of conscience against the abuse of concealing vote buying, ActionSA has written to our Tshwane caucus and required any councillor who voted to support Makwarela to provide written reasons to justify their decision as a vote of conscience. In the event that such explanations are not forthcoming, further measures will be considered including a unanimous request made by the caucus today for polygraph testing to be initiated.
ActionSA’s drive to identify any councillors within its rank that voted against the coalition is informed by the imperative of ensuring we discern between a legally protected vote of conscience and votes being bought by financial and other forms of inducement. This discernment can only be made by identifying the councillors concerned.
In the interests of openness and transparency, we provide a digital link to the letter issued ActionSA’s City of Tshwane caucus.
ActionSA affirms our commitment to the multi-party coalition in the City of Tshwane and will work with our coalition partners to ensure that any form of wrongdoing will be acted against in the strongest terms and in a manner consistent with our legal system. We are pleased to receive reports from other coalition partners which reveal their dedication to this same principle.
Issued by Michael Beaumont, ActionSA National Chairperson, 2 March 2023
