In a rare move to underscore accountability among senior office-bearers, Parliament’s Joint Committee on Ethics and Members’ Interests has imposed a R10 000 fine on Deputy President Paul Mashatile for failing to declare a registrable gift — specifically, a diamond — within the legally required timeframe. The fine, announced this week, has been criticised by some as merely a “slap on the wrist” for one of the country’s most powerful political figures. Mashatile, who returned to Parliament following the 2024 general…

ActionSA has ignited a major political storm by tabling a private member’s bill in Parliament that seeks to dramatically shrink South Africa’s executive and impose tighter accountability on ministerial appointments and perks. The proposed Constitution Twenty-Second Amendment Bill, gazetted this week by ActionSA parliamentary leader Athol Trollip, aims to abolish the office of Deputy Minister, introduce mandatory parliamentary vetting of all Cabinet appointments, and grant Parliament the power to remove individual ministers through motions of no confidence. Trollip said the…

Opposition political party ActionSA has branded the first year of the government of national unity (GNU) as a failed project. The Herman Mashaba-led party said the GNU is “Unity in Name, Failure in Practice.” This is contained in the statement of assessment that the party issued since the GNU took office a year ago. The party said it elected not to join the GNU because that would have left the opposition benches to “regressive forces … who played key roles…

The national chairperson of ActionSA, Michael Beaumont, has warned that his party will take the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) to court if it fails to meet its deadline to release a report on the conduct of the presidential protection unit during the Phala Phala probe. Beaumont said that after ActionSA’s initial application under the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) a month ago, IPID missed its first deadline and instead requested a 30-day extension. This follows ActionSA’s PAIA…

The calls for the National Director of Public Prosecution (NDPP), Advocate Shamila Batohi to be axed are growing, with ActionSA becoming the latest political party to add its voice . After her axing, the Herman Mashaba led party wants a full parliamentary inquiry into the National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) ongoing prosecutorial failures and the extent to which political interference has infected its operations. The party’s national chairperson, Michael Beaumont says the NPA has once again exposed its deep dysfunction, either…

The President of ActionSA has applauded the City of Tshwane (Pretoria) in Gauteng for its decision to add 200 more police officers after successfully tabling its 2025-2026 budget on Thursday, 29 May 2025. Herman Mashaba, whose party secured the mayorship in the multiparty coalition running the city and deployed Dr. Nasiphi Moya, said the move was long overdue. He said the municipality had not increased its security personnel in line with its rapidly increasing population. “The recruitment of more than…

ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba has given Mineral and Petroleum Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe 60 days to honour his commitment that his department would retrieve the three miners’ bodies currently languishing in the bowels of the Lily Mine in Barberton, Mpumalanga. Mashaba warned that if Mantashe fails to act, his party will proceed independently to recover the remains of Solomon Nyirenda, Pretty Nkambule and Yvonne Mnisi, who were trapped when their container collapsed during an implosion on 5 February 2016, leaving…

ActionSA has frowned at the DA’s motion of no confidence against the Mayor of the City of Johannesburg, Dada Morero from the ANC, and the Speaker Nobuhle Mthembu from its ranks. The party’s provincial chairperson, Funzi Ngobeni, says this is another opportunistic ploy aimed at exploiting a city already in deep crisis. He added that there is no denying the deep governance crisis that has gripped the City of Johannesburg, as basic services are failing, infrastructure is crumbling, and residents…

The leader of ActionSA, Herman Mashaba, took another jab at the DA today, saying the scrapping of the VAT increase was achieved by parties outside the government of national unity (GNU), not by any court action. Mashaba was speaking in Sandton on Thursday, April 24, where parties including the ANC, Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), BOSA and others briefed the media following the government’s decision to scrap the increase. This came after DA Federal Chairperson Helen Zille and other party members…

ActionSA, the kingmaker party that helped the ANC to pass the 2025-2026 budget without the support of its coalition partner the DA, says it would withhold its support if the VAT increase proposal is implemented from 1 May 2025.  The party’s parliamentary leader,  Athol Trollip, says they still have the cards to block the move. He was briefing the media today, April 3,  following yesterday’s heated budget sitting where it appears that the ANC dribbled ActionSA by promising not to…