ActionSA president and mayoral candidate for the City of Johannesburg, Herman Mashaba has cast his vote at the Sandton Fire Station in Johannesburg on Monday morning.
South Africa is holding municipal elections today, 1 November 2021, to elect councils for all district, metropolitan and local municipalities in each of the country’s nine provinces.
Mashaba, a former Democratic Alliance (DA) top official, is gunning for his former position as Mayor of the highly contested Johannesburg Metropolitan Council.
Speaking to reporters soon after casting his ballot, Mashaba said that the only way South Africans could make a difference in the country was to unseat the ANC. He said:
I am feeling wonderful. I have cast both my votes, one for the PR councillor and one for the ward councillor.
Although we have been reduced to just a logo on the ballot form, we are still easily recognisable.
In spite of being a year old, ActionSA has had four confrontations with the Electoral Commission (IEC).
The party, however, lost its battle to force the IEC to include its full name in the ballot paper ahead of the elections.
ActionSA applied to the Electoral Court sitting in Joburg to force the IEC to include its full name in the ballot paper.
It argued that the electoral body’s registration papers did not indicate that parties must include their abbreviated names when contesting for elections.
Mashaba told the media shortly after casting his vote that ActionSA has been treated unfairly. He said:
Yes, we feel we have been reared unfairly, but you know me, you try and close the door on me, and I’ll always find a way out.
Just look for our beautiful logo, and cast your vote today. We need to unseat the criminal organisation called the ANC.
They have destroyed our country, but we don’t need guns and AK47s to remove the criminal organisation. We need to vote ActionSA.