Despite Mashaba decrying a coalition with the ANC and threatening to resign if it happened, the former ActionSA Gauteng chairperson said this was not what drove a wedge between him and the party’s leader.
FILE: Baloyi announced his resignation from ActionSA on Monday. Picture: Abigail Javier/Eyewitness News
JOHANNESBURG – Former ActionSA Gauteng chairperson Bongani Baloyi insisted that 2022’s discussions around potential coalitions with the African National Congress (ANC), in fact, took place with party leader Herman Mashaba’s blessing.
This was despite the fact that Mashaba was subsequently quoted as saying such coalitions would take place “over his dead body,” threatening to resign if they went ahead, which they, ultimately, did not.
Baloyi hosted a media briefing in Sandton on Monday afternoon, where he announced that he was resigning from ActionSA.
In response to questions on the coalition discussions and whether the matter drove a wedge between him and Mashaba, Baloyi insisted this was not the case.
READ: Baloyi admits not knowing what ‘irreconcilable differences’ he had with Mashaba
Baloyi said that ANC Gauteng chair Panyaza Lesufi first floated the idea of potential coalitions with ActionSA with him and the party’s national chair, Michael Beaumont, at a sitting of the Johannesburg City Council in 2022.
He said they, then, took the idea to Mashaba.
“That’s how people are lying that my main difference between Mashaba is about working with the ANC. It is a lie. He endorsed engaging with them. He gave us support.
“He was happy that we’d be able to co-govern, either in executive only and they’re in legislature. That was what he consented and supported and gave us the mandate to go do.”
READ: Baloyi worried that being ActionSA spokesperson sending wrong message to youth
