PODCAST | ActionSA grilled on voting for DA despite saying it's 'dishonest'

Michael Beaumont, national chairperson of ActionSA, faced questions on Eusebius on TimesLIVE, about why his party had seemingly contradicted itself by describing the DA as dishonest at the weekend yet voting for its mayoral candidates this week.

He attempted to defend their voting choices by drawing a distinction between supporting the DA per se and ensuring the ANC is cliffed, insisting the latter motivation trumps the “dishonesty” of the DA. 

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McKaiser also engaged him on the political differences between ActionSA and the DA, and he conceded that “there is overlap” between the parties but that there are also “values differences” such as their different positions on race. He characterised the DA as being colour-blind whereas ActionSA, by contrast, accepts and understands the historical reality of racialised identities.

Beaumont conceded, however, that his party had yet to fully develop a clear identity beyond contesting the local elections. 

McKaiser and Beaumont also explored other themes including the reality, which Beaumont conceded, that the party cannot survive without the leader Herman Mashaba, and that coalition arrangements are likely to be unstable because of a lack of political maturation within the South African body politic.

McKaiser, lastly, also pressured Beaumont to explain reports of a journalist, Edwin Ntshidi, who had been sworn in as an ActionSA PR councillor, suggesting apparent unethical behaviour if the conflict of interest had not been declared while he was freelancing as a journalist during the elections. Beaumont confirmed that the party is “investigating” the matter.  

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