‘You couldn’t run a bath, let alone a municipality’: Mashaba & Manyi's war of words

Political squabbles continue to play out in public with ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba and the African Transformation Movement’s (ATM) Mzwanele Manyi throwing shade at each other on social media.

It started when the Electoral Commission (IEC) omitted ActionSA’s name and only used its logo on ballot papers. 

The commission blamed ActionSA for its name not appearing on the ballot, saying the party did not choose an abbreviation when it registered with the IEC.

It said it would not amend its final draft ballot papers to add ActionSA’s name next to its logo for the November 1 local government elections, despite the party threatening legal action. 

Weighing in about the decision, Manyi said ActionSA cannot be trusted to implement bylaws of municipalities because it failed to “fill in a form properly”. 

“If ActionSA can’t even fill in a form properly, why should it be trusted to implement the bylaws of municipalities? If you wanted the IEC to put your name in full, you should have put your name in full instead of saying N/A. The IEC is not your mentor,” he said.

Reacting, Mashaba questioned how many bylaws Manyi had implemented in his life as a politician. 

“ANN7 propaganda doesn’t count,” Mashaba said.

“You couldn’t run a bath, let alone an entire municipality.”

In a war of words, Manyi suggested Mashaba failed as Johannesburg mayor, saying he was busying “posing for pictures”. 

“The accident that parachuted you to be a mayor will not happen again. [The] city of Johannesburg is a mess because of you,” said Manyi. 

“Instead of employing competent people to clean the streets, you were busy with a broom yourself, posing for pictures.”

In a separate post, Mashaba poked fun at politicians who have “chest pains” and “can’t keep ActionSA out of their mouths”.

“Astonishing to think a one-year-old political party can take up so much space in these people’s minds. Let them talk. We are winning hearts and minds on the ground,” said Mashaba.

Last year, Mashaba slammed Manyi for calling him a “liar” in response to the IEC’s decision not to register ActionSA as a political party.

“This is exactly why people don’t trust politicians. Why would Mashaba lie like this? Politics should be about honour, not manipulating people. I feel sorry for those who trust him,” Manyi wrote on Twitter at the time.