‘We will form a political party,’ says Herman Mashaba

Former Johannesburg Mayor, Herman Mashaba, says a new political party is likely to emerge following submissions to the People’s Dialogue. 

According to SABC News, Mashaba and former DA leader, Mmusi Maimane, launched what they call the People’s Dialogue which serves as a platform to discuss how to forge a better future for South Africa.

Mashaba says citizens have until the end of February 2020 to make their submissions based on what they believe are South Africa’s future possibilities.

Mashaba chooses civil society 

Mashaba explained that during recent elections, almost 56% of South African’s did not vote. 

“We live in a democracy that is relatively new, and in a country that is spectacularly failing but at the same time, people are not going out,” said Mashaba. 

His theory is that South African’s are not voting because they have given up and they simply do not know what more to do to help the country. Also, they believe that they do not possess any power. Based on this, Mashsaba along with Maimane decided to initiate a programme called the People’s Dialogue. 

“It is so that people can understand that individually and collectively, we have the responsibility. If we have to save this country, we are not going to do it with AK47’s, we will save this country with civil society, standing up for our rights, standing up to go and vote and standing up for making sure that we are holding our political parties accountable,” said Mashaba.  

Gearing up to compete in elections 

Mashaba said based on submissions received from the People’s Dialogue at the end of February 2020 and the release of a report, a political party will be formed to compete in the 2020/21 local government elections. 

“So far the indications are overwhelming to indicate that we need a new political formation. With millions of contributions or submissions already received, South Africans and I have the same fears. If I have to close the submissions today, it is enough to form a political party, however, I have committed to run this process until the end of February,” he said. 

“I am proud because, with millions of contributions already received, it appears that South African’s and I share the same feelings,” added Mashaba. 

Mashaba refers to DA as clandestine organisation

Mashaba insists that the government needs to listen to individual civil society leaders, and not lobby groups.

The lobby group in this instance was International Race Relations (IRR), that he claims has fully captured the Democratic Alliance (DA), leading to his resignation on 21 October 2019.

“How do I sit back and allow the DA to be captured by another organisation under my watch, and I said for that reason, I’m out of here,” he said. 

Mashaba said he did not want to associate with a “clandestine organisation” as he is not here to “make friends.” 

“I will never mislead someone, you either know where I stand on issues or you don’t but I don’t have the time for wishy-washy. I don’t expect someone to associate themselves with me if they know I have malice intentions,” he went on to say.  

“The DA has been fully captured by the IRR, unless they can prove otherwise. It is for that reason that I wrote them an open letter,” he added.