Cape Town - The former deputy mayor of Knysna, on a DA ticket, Michelle Wasserman is the newly-appointed ActionSA Western Cape provincial chairperson.
The choice of Wasserman confirmed speculation that she was the party’s pick to replace Vytjie Mentor, who died in August.
Wasserman, who holds a Master’s degree in human rights law, first joined ActionSA in June and said what drew her to the party was its ability to attract voters from all the country’s race groups.
She said her former party, the DA, couldn’t do this and was well aware of the fact.
“Here in the Western Cape, the only province not governed by the ANC, we intend to bring the DA below 50% by demonstrating the huge disparity between the haves and have nots.”
Introducing Wasserman, ActionSA president Herman Mashaba said the party’s plan was to garner enough support by the 2024 elections to get the ANC government voted out of power and to replace it with a coalition government led by ActionSA.
To achieve this goal Mashaba set Wasserman and her provincial executive committee (PEC) a target of getting at least 10% to 15% of the Western Cape vote at the next election.
“That will show that we’re not here to be in opposition. If we don’t achieve this low target, the PEC’s jobs will be on the line.”
Mashaba said ActionSA wanted to reflect the “rainbow nation” ideals of Archbishop Desmond Tutu and was busy putting together party structures that reflected the racial dynamics of South Africa.
