Durban - Former ActionSA members who resigned en masse last week are busy preparing to launch their own political party to contest 2024 general elections.
This was confirmed to the Daily News by the former party provincial secretary Bongani Caluza on Sunday. Following mass resignations of the regional and sub-regional leaders, Caluza also announced his resignations in a media briefing on Friday.
He said he had planned to resign before the national leadership disbanded the provincial executive committee, saying he believed the national leadership anticipated his resignation and rushed to disband the provincial structure to avoid humiliation.
Like many, Caluza said the national leadership was undermining the provincial structure.
He said it was difficult to work under conditions imposed by the national leadership. Almost all leaders that resigned were complaining about racism and elitism within the party arguing that it was not the party for poor people.
"It is true we are preparing to launch our own party. We have left ActionSA and we are moving forward with our plans and tomorrow we will start the process to register the party," said Caluza.
He said the decision by the national leadership to disband the PEC was laughable since out of 11 regions there were only three left because all the nine regional structures had submitted their resignation.
According to Caluza only Zululand, Ilembe (KwaDukuza) and Majuba (Newcastle) chairpersons hadn’t resigned.
Former eThekwini regional chairperson Busisiwe Ntshingila said they decided to form the new party because they couldn’t leave the people they were leading in the lurch.
She said every leader who had resigned from the party had left with his or her members. This was why forming a new party was important because people still needed their leadership, she added.
In response to the mass resignation, the party's national leadership disbanded the provincial structure and appointed its executive director, John Moodey, to be an interim leader until the new chairperson is appointed in October.
The party's national chairperson Michael Beaumont said the party had no problem when former members formed their own party and confirmed Moodey's interim appointment.
The party did well. It contested elections for the first time last year, winning more than 10 seats in the three municipalities.
Problems started a few months after the elections, with the party firing Dr Makhosi Khoza who was the face of the party during the elections.
The party is still dealing with the disciplinary action of its former provincial chairperson Musa Kubheka.
Daily News