ActionSA in Gauteng said it will not support a proposed motion of no confidence against Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi by the DA.
The DA had indicated that it would submit a proposed motion of no confidence against Lesufi after the Public Protector (PP) found that his signature project, the Gauteng Crime Prevention wardens, was illegally established.
ActionSA provincial leader in Gauteng, Funzi Ngobeni, on Friday said the party had received an invitation to support the motion.
“ActionSA has received and formally responded to a letter from the Democratic Alliance (DA) seeking our support for a proposed motion of no confidence in Premier Panyaza Lesufi.
“As a matter of principle, ActionSA supports all initiatives aimed at strengthening accountability and improving governance in Gauteng.
“However, motions of no confidence must be grounded in a credible governance alternative, not political theatre,” he said.
A numbers game
Ngobeni said the DA should consult larger opposition parties to ensure there are sufficient numbers for the motion to succeed.
“Furthermore, a successful motion of no confidence requires at least 41 votes in the 80-seat Legislature. The current balance of forces makes such an outcome highly unlikely without a broader coalition consensus.
“For that reason, we have advised the DA to first secure meaningful engagements with numerically decisive blocs, such as the EFF and MK party, before seeking the participation of emerging caucuses like ActionSA. Building consensus among the major opposition forces would demonstrate seriousness of purpose and credibility of intent,” he said.
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What did the DA do?
Ngobeni blamed the DA for supporting Lesufi’s election as premier after the 2024 government elections.
“It must also be said that many of the very shortcomings highlighted by the DA – maladministration, poor leadership, and failures of governance, could have been avoided had the DA not supported Mr Lesufi’s nomination as Premier in June 2024.
“That decision placed Gauteng under the very leadership they now seek to remove. If the DA has now reached a moment of reflection, it should begin by apologising to the residents of Gauteng for its historic misjudgement in that moment of GNU euphoria. Only then can its motion carry the moral authority to correct what it helped create,” he said.
Was the DA betrayed?
Following the ANC’s poor performance at last year’s general elections, it was understood that the DA would go into a coalition with the ANC, with Lesufi as premier.
However, Lesufi refused to give in to the DA’s demands in relation to positions after the party had helped him get elected.
It is unclear whether the MK party and the EFF would help unseat Lesufi, given that they have been seen as his allies.
Where are the wardens now?
Meanwhile, the Gauteng Provincial Government told The Citizen on Friday that the disbanded Amapanyaza are now assisting with various tasks related to the G20 leaders’ summit, which will take place in Johannesburg in November.
Lesufi said some of them will be trained to join the Gauteng Traffic Officers, the province’s traffic enforcement unit.
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